Yellow Breast

"Yellow Breast" an 8 x 10 Acrylic painting by Mark Phillips

The avifauna of Barbados includes a total of 270 species, according to Bird Checklists of the World as of February 2018. Of them, one is endemic, 17 have been introduced by humans, and 178 are rare or accidental. Eight species have been extirpated and one is probably extinct.

One of my goals is to record on canvas as many of these birds as I can. The first one in the “Birds of Barbados” collection is the Yellow Breast. This particular species is thought to be found only in Barbados.  I remember as children calling them yellow breast sparrows but they are not sparrows at all.

Common Name: Bananaquit aka Yellow Breast

Scientific Name: Coereba flaveola sp. barbadensis

Description: 4-5 inches; upperparts black with some white patches; black head with white eyebrow stripe (yellow in juveniles); bill curved; neck black, breast yellow, rump white

Habitat: Island wide – can be found in flower gardens etc. – Feeds on the nectar of flowers.

Many sub-species of Coereba flaveola are found throughout the Caribbean with sp. Bardadensis being endemic to Barbados.

I do not particularly like painting on canvases smaller than 11 x 14, however, I made an exception for this collection. The best thing about painting this size is the time it takes to complete. I finished this painting in about 4 hours.  I hope that one day these could be sold as a complete collection and displayed together.

I would be amiss if I did not share with you what this bird sounds like. I hope you like it!

It has been many years since I have seen or heard a "Yellow Breast". I grew up in St. Philip and they were very common around my home. Now I live in St. James and despite having a reasonable sized garden around my home with many species of flowering plants, I have not noticed one. I really hope it is because I have been too busy to notice and not because these birds are disappearing from our landscape. Please let me know when last you have seen one.

As always, thank you for reading, (and viewing). I appreciate the comments and the kind words of encouragement. Until next time when I will share some more of my work with you, please leave a comment.  And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. To make sure that you don't miss any future posts, Please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right.

Mark Phillips

Artist
Email:- mark@phillipsbajanart.com
Website:-www.phillipsbajanart.com
Online Store:- PhillipsArtStore