#Blisheag

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Blisheag

We've got another bird this week, but it looks like people are having fun with it, so let's see what came out of it.

As usual, if you're not sure what this is about, you can see previous material at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting and follow stuff as it's posted at the tag maniculum bestiaryposting.

The entry our artists are working from this week can be seen here:

Roughly chronological order under the cut, &c. &c., you know how this works.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) notes that the translation choosing to say "bill" instead of "beak" makes them think of ducks, and furthermore how that seems a bit odd that we have these two very similar terms, acknowledge that some birds have beaks and some have bills, and then don't really think about it. That's a pretty interesting point -- I'm tempted to take some time to look up whether there is a defined difference, but I have a post to write and other Tasks waiting in the wings, so please, if you know what that's about, let us know. The line that the Blisheag is an enemy to snakes naturally brought the secretary bird to mind, so here we see it trampling a snake with its talons. (Some of our other artists also made the connection to secretary birds and their practice of stomping snakes -- it's interesting to me that this is apparently a part of Tumblr's collective consciousness.) Also, the coloration is based on the American black duck, which Silverhart describes as "quite a handsome duck", and I have to say the color pattern is pretty nice.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has also gone for large talons for stomping snakes, and in the absence of any specific physical details, decided to have some fun with it. I like the choice to give it a turkey-like body and tail combined with a long neck like a flamingo. Sweetlyfez also included the detail in the entry that the Blisheag loses its feathers while diligently incubating its nest, giving it a bald neck and head. I think the effect is kind of charming -- it kind of evokes a flamingo, but since that's bald skin rather than pink feathers, it would probably look closer to a vulture in person.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has given us a whole group (they helpfully inform us that the collective noun is a "lance") of Blisheags attentively listening to a crow who is perched on a stump. I really like this interpretation of them following crows as guides -- like it's not just an instinctive behavior but they're actively in collaboration with the crows somehow and take verbal direction from them. Something really clever here that's easy to miss if you don't know what you're looking for -- which is why you should make a practice of reading Cheapsweets's linked posts, as they tend to include detailed explanations -- is how they've interpreted the details that describe the Blisheags making creaking & clashing noises and following the crows like an army. Look at those varied head shapes on the different Blisheag subspecies: they're patterned after different styles of knights' helmets. Also, I'd like to thank Cheapsweets for providing their own alt text, and acknowledge that I of course noticed the Stylized Trees.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has as usual done some delightful medieval stylization in this week's art. (And provided their own alt text, thank you.) Something I think is really clever here is how she's interpreted "enemies of snakes" as combined with "fly across the sea" -- obviously, when they're migrating, they have to deal with being menaced by sea serpents. Brilliant. As for the actual birds, we see them following crows of course, and apparently in the absence of physical description, Coolest-capybara decided to pattern them after a depiction of a bird in an old church window; if you want to see the window, you should check out the linked post. It's a good bird design, I think.

@pomrania (link to post here) also thought "secretary bird" and decided to run with it. They mention going a bit Seussian in design, and I think it really works. (Also apparently the crow is patterned after the "Crow Time" comics, which Cheapsweets also namechecked, so I suppose I should go look at those at some point.) Aside from the delightfully whimsical look of the bird in general, I think the really clever part of the design is those little round bumps on the end of its beak. They also noted the description of the Blisheag making noise by clashing its bill, and decided to give it a bill that's adapted to making noise -- they describe it as a "roseate spoonbill crossed with a tambourine". I love it.

@strixcattus (link to post here) notes the lack of specific detail but has drawn this ibis-esque bird with a very good curved beak. The gold here is in the description Strixcattus provides to remedy the "lack of detail" problem, which includes more on the nesting practices alluded to in the entry and an explanation of how it hunts snakes -- since, of course, it is the enemy of snakes, as we know. Again, you need to go read all of the worldbuilding naturalist posts Strixcattus has done for this exercise; they're delightful and very well thought out. Also, I think this drawing is the closest to the real bird, so let's go ahead and transition to...

... the Aberdeen Bestiary version. (Note: this time around I straight-up forgot what bird this was supposed to be when I sat down to do this post, but luckily I made a spreadsheet back when I started this that I was able to reference.)

Yep, those are definitely storks. Pretty recognizable depiction, I'd say. Frog looks oddly happy with being caught here.

The migration habits of storks are actually something that comes up in other medieval texts. Pretty sure they're just guessing with "Asia" here; medieval Europeans didn't really know where storks went. The version I like best is in the tradition that includes the Old English Wonders of the East, wherein we are informed that storks are only birds when they summer in Europe -- when they're back home for the winter, they take humanoid form. Really. The text in the Wonders of the East is as follows (translation mine):

There are men born who are 15 feet tall, & they have white bodies & two noses on one head. Their knees are very red, their noses long, and their hair black. When they wish to give birth, they travel on ships to India, and there bring their kin into the world.

Doesn't sound like it's talking about storks? There's a reason for that. The Wonders of the East is actually a great example of Manuscript Telephone. Ann Elizabeth Knock, in her dissertation "Wonders of the East: a synoptic edition of the Letter of Pharasmanes and the Old English and Old Picard translations" (which you can get a PDF version of at this link here), gives us the following view of the original version:

Men are born there with long legs. They are very tall, 12 or 15 feet. They [or, in some versions, just their arms] are white. Their faces are divided. They have red feet. The head is round; they have long noses and black shoulders. At a certain time, they transform into birds. As birds, they breed in [an area familiar to the reader of the Letter]; you call them storks.

The Wonders of the East lost the stork aspect in transmission -- the next entry in the Wonders starts with "There is a land in Gaul called Ciconia", which is the end of the above version being accidentally attached to the next bit and reinterpreted. Ciconia is Latin for "stork", and the version the scribe was copying from probably named Gaul as the area where they went to breed.

(Similarly, traveling on ships in the Wonders of the East is probably a confusion of navis 'ship' and avis 'bird'.)

For more on the Wonders of the East, we did a three-part episode on it back in March 2021, and I later wrote up a summary of the differences between the text we used and Knock's reconstructions at this link here. (Very much summarized, Knock's work is lengthy & detailed & a surprisingly good read for an absolute doorstopper of a dissertation.)

[silverhart-makes-art]

Didn't put too much thought into this week's Bestiary Posting, the Blisheag, but I still like what I came up with.

The reference to a 'bill' made me think of a duck initially so that's what I leaned into. (It is kind of weird how some birds definitely have 'beaks' and others definitely have 'bills' and I know which one's have which, even though 'beak' and 'bill' are apparently synonyms. English is so weird.)

The reference to being an 'enemy to snakes' made me think of the secretary bird, so I gave it relatively long legs and claws to deal with those slithering serpents. Lastly, I know storks clack their bills, and decided that this bird needed a long bill and neck like a stork. I also tried to slim down and make the body a bit more 'stork like' as with it's long legs, claws and beak it really feels like more of a wading bird then a dabbling duck.

For coloration I referenced the American Black duck, just because I think they're quite a handsome duck.

[cheapsweets]

The clangorous Blisheag

My response to this week's BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum

Here we have a lance (a group) of Blisheags, gathered round a quite expressive crow standing atop a makeshift podium. There's a couple of different Blisheags here, we can clearly see a couple of hounskull Blishaegs, some sallet Blisheags, and even the rarer frogmouth blisheag... Are they different but related species, do we have some sexual dimorphism here, or are these just different lifestages of the birds? The answer remains a mystery; the bestiary authors are not telling...

Hey! I managed to fill a new fountain pen to try drawing with... I think it's going to take a bit to get my hand in again :D I was thinking it would be much easier using a regular fountain pen, but clearly I've started to get used to the idiosyncracies of the weird pens I have been using! I also (still) need to listen to myself and draw larger if I'm working on A5 paper. Still pleased how this came out in the end!

Jinhao shark fountain pen with a fine, hooded nib (the hooded nib means it dries out less quickly, and can also prevent inky fingers to some degree) with Monteverde Raven Noir ink, over initial pencil sketch.

Also, thank you for the suggestions for animal anatomy/drawing books, I have some stuff to keep an eye out for!

As ever, reasoning under the cut...

Blisheags get their name, [redacted], from the creaking sound they make, like crickets, [redacted]. The sound comes from their mouth rather than their voice, because they make it by clashing their bills.

Okay, this is cool. So, the main thing we know about them physically is that their beaks make a 'creaking' sound (not the way I'd ever thought to describe crickets or grasshoppers chirruping, but I can absolutely see it). So we need to do something interesting with the beaks, but what...?

Blisheags are the heralds of spring; they share a sense of community; they are the enemies of snakes; they fly across the sea, making their way in flocks to Asia. Crows go in front of them as their guides, the Blisheags following them as if in an army.

This is where everything started to come together. In terms of the composition, I liked the idea of the Blisheags gathered round a crow, about to lead them all across the sea.

This also meant that I was figuring that Blisheags were probably corvids too (plus, corvids are awesome), maybe taking some influence from jackdaws, following their larger (and wiser?) cousins the crows?

Also, the birds being compared to an army, beaks creaking... like armour? Hence the decision to style their heads and beaks like medieval helmets. I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, and I'm sure others have done it better, but it was fun!

There's also got to be some heavy inflience from @secondlina's Crow Time comics (which are awesome and you should check them out if you haven't already).

Blisheags possess a strong sense of duty towards their young. They are so keen to keep their nests warm that their feathers fall out as a result of the constant incubation. But their young spend as much time caring for them when they grow old, as they spend caring for their young.

I've included a nod to this, with one of the hounskull Blisheags near the stump - its chest and legs are all fluffy and we have some moulted feathers scattered around from where it has been incubating its nest. I wanted to go more towards the natural fluffiness from moulting birds, rather than having feathers plucked out due to stress (or other birds), mostly because it was more pleasant to draw!

[sweetlyfez]

Another bestiary beastie with very little physical description, here is the "blisheag"

I'm feeling very sympathetic to the monks trying to illustrate these things when the text basically only specifies "has bill and feathers"

So here's another fucked up bird! Snake-stomping feet, balding bits, an assortment of other features to make it peculiar, and a vaaaguely springish colour scheme

I keep hoping to get these done earlier in the week!

[coolest-capybara]

We are back to birds again in the Maniculum Bestiaryposting challenge! This time, the Blisheag!

As usual, the author gives more details about the behaviour of the bird than what it looks like (which makes sense if the text is supposed to have pictures next to it anyway, I suppose). What inspired me this time was the description of how "they fly across the sea, making their way in flocks to Asia. Crows go in front of them as their guides, the Blisheags following them". Since it was also explained that "they are the enemies of snakes", I chose to have them encounter a sea serpent on their travels.

As for their shape, I took inspiration from this church window, because that bird looks both like it could make cricket sounds and grumpy enough to beat up a snake.

If I had more time, I would have loved to draw some of the family interactions too, it's so nice to hear of some birds the author considers to have healthier family dynamics!

[strixcattus]

The Blisheag

From birds we began, and to birds we once again return.

...Though there's not exactly a lot to go by this time around.

The Blisheag

The Blisheag (Blisheag blisheag) is a migratory bird that lives throughout Europe in the summer and in southern Europe and southwest Asia in the winter. It has long legs and bill, broad wings, primarily white feathers, and tan markings along the backs of its wings and the tip of its tail. All Blisheag have red patches on their throats—these are small and uniform in females and large and varied in males.

Blisheag primarily nest near lakes, coastlines, and slow-moving rivers. They will build elaborate nests at the bases of trees, constructed from branches, cattails and other emergent plants, mud, and their own shed feathers. These nests are sturdy, and a mated pair of Blisheag will attempt to return to the same nest year after year, repairing and strengthening it as needed.

Their diet consists primarily of fish, and of snakes whenever they have the chance to hunt them. A Blisheag which has spotted a snake will glide overhead until it seizes the opportunity to land, foot atop the snake's neck, which prevents it from biting before the Blisheag can spear the snake's skull with its beak.

Blisheag mate for life, and both partners take equal roles in caring for their chicks. The female will lay eggs in late spring, upon arrival to her nest in Europe, and throughout summer at least one parent will always be present in the nest to shelter and guard the eggs, and later, to watch the chicks as they grow. At the end of summer, when it is time for the Blisheag to migrate, the chicks will travel with their parents, who in turn will join up with a larger flock typically containing their siblings and parents.

After the first year of their lives, Blisheag leave their parents to find mates and build nests of their own. However, they still frequently visit their parents, and as the parents age, their chicks will pay close attention to them during migration to ensure that every member of the family makes it to their nest safely. It is thanks to this mutual protection between parent and chick that Blisheag have few successful natural predators.

[pomrania]

Here's my rendition of the blisheag, from @maniculum's Bestiaryposting. My progress thread for this piece can be found here, if you want to see how it developed.

This was an anomaly for me; I got the idea for what kind of composition I wanted for the final piece, significantly BEFORE doing design work. The saluting crow is a free-association from the bit about them flying with crows "as if in an army".

The description this week didn't give us much to work with, other than features that would be on birds. It mentions them making noises from their beaks, rather than their voices; and I genuinely don't know how it happened, but my brain automatically filled in "oh so the beak must look like a roseate spoonbill's crossed with a tambourine". And speaking of things my brain automatically did, I read the line "enemies of snakes" and my thoughts went directly to "secretary bird"; which I didn't have a problem with, because secretary birds are cool, and it's not like there were any other ideas jumping out at me.

I decided for this piece / design to go for something more stylized, possibly like Doctor Seuss as filtered through decades in my memory. Thus the stripes on the neck, the overly long neck that's... I don't even know what word I'd use to describe its twists and position, and the large eyes on the adult blisheag. On the one hand, it was kind of freeing to go for something that was never supposed to be physically possible, only emotionally plausible in a stylized setting; on the other hand, I'd want to study it more before trying it again. (The crow however is pretty much entirely from how I remember them being drawn in those Crow Time comics.)

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting -- Blisheag

As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting .

Blisheags get their name, [redacted], from the creaking sound they make, like crickets, [redacted]. The sound comes from their mouth rather than their voice, because they make it by clashing their bills. Blisheags are the heralds of spring; they share a sense of community; they are the enemies of snakes; they fly across the sea, making their way in flocks to Asia. Crows go in front of them as their guides, the Blisheags following them as if in an army. Blisheags possess a strong sense of duty towards their young. They are so keen to keep their nests warm that their feathers fall out as a result of the constant incubation. But their young spend as much time caring for them when they grow old, as they spend caring for their young.

Remember to tag posts with #Blisheag so folks can find them.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Nadokwak

At time of writing this, there are only a couple depictions posted, so this might be a short one -- we'll see if others pop up later tonight. Maybe this bird just isn't that artistically inspiring.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can find an explanation and the rest of this series at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

The entry our artist are working from for this post can be found here:

And the one for the next post, if you want to participate, is here:

Now, art below the cut:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) says the description put them in mind of waterfowl, which they gave a long neck and an erect posture for the effect of vigilance. Solid waterfowl; I really like the feather pattern on the neck. For more details on the design and its inspirations, see the linked post.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn this really pleasant little scene, for which they credit Tove Jansson as stylistic inspiration. (I've got to read the Moomin books at some point; those little troll critters are always on my dashboard and I know nothing about them.) Genuinely delightful. Also note that the standing Nadokwak is holding a rock in its foot to stay awake while guarding the others.

So, the Aberdeen Bestiary:

This is, as you can probably guess from the image, the crane.

I don't have much to add to this one, other than that medieval Europeans really seemed to find cranes evocative. They're not on the level of, like, lions in terms of semiotic saturation, but they come up now and then, usually in a positive light.

I kept getting a sense of deja vu about this one, and Silverhart mentioned the same -- when I went to include one of my favorite Medieval Bird Factoids I think I figured out why. A previous entry, the Blisheag, is on a quite similar bird, and I had them confused.

Said Medieval Bird Factoid is not about cranes after all, so I'm going to leave this post here I suppose.