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Friday, March 10, 2006

RNRFairies, Part 8, Moth & Tanuki guest appearance! 



As featured in the March 2006 issue of Total Girl magazine (out now!), here's some frames from the latest episode of Dillon's Rock 'N' Roll Fairies drawn by me. Can anyone name what sort of bird that is? Originally, I was going to draw a blue wren, but due to scale (and not wanting to malign a native bird), I chose one of these characters. And yes, they do eat blackberries :).

I know Moth & Tanuki have a full on life of their own that doesn't stop just because I get too tired to draw them.

Here they are again, putting in a guest appearance lurking in the background to the poster for the upcoming OzTAKU Doujinshi Short Course at the Japanese Studies Centre, Monash University Clayton. I won't be there (I hate public speaking), but I'm pretty sure Kenneth Chan will be one of the teachers, so consider it recommended!

The pics are from the "Trouble in the Pizza Shop" episode seen in OzTAKU #3 (original series), and about to run in 1.1 of the new series. More on that sometime soon...

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Comments:
Is it a Kookaburra? Or am I being shockingly stereotypical?
 
Cherrypie - No, and possibly :). Or maybe I exaggerated the beak a little... thanks for trying! I reckon most Australians will pick this fairly quickly, but it'd be hard from the UK or US.
 
hi ian-i don't know so much about birds but i was thinking it could be a veery and yet, i am not sure if you have veery over there in au.

thanks for the issue update.
 
Thanks, Isay! I looked up pics of the veery because we don't have them in Australia. Nope, they're a fine-looking bird, but nope, not one of those.
 
Ok. Can I have a second guess? How about a White-Winged Fairy Wren? I have no idea what one looks like but it seems apt.
 
Thanks, Cherriepie, I can see why you'd pick that wren on the white colouration (and the superb blue wren was my first choice, and they do both eat blackberries), but no, this bird's bigger and much, much more common. There's a twist to this too - but most Australians should be way too familiar with these guys!
 
Please, Ian. Put me out of my misery. Tell me what it is.

I'm a novice bird-spotter and due to go on a walk with much more learned and wise folk this weekend. If I don't know what they are called, what hope is there that I'll ever be able to spot one in the field? ( or should that be bush?)
 
Cherrypie, because you asked, I'll tell :). I perfectly understand why it would be mysterious from outside Australia, but I'm amazed no local named this bird - in Australia you can barely drive down the road without nearly running one over!

It's... and Indian myna. The twist is that they're feral (sometimes called the cane toads of the air). When Jill's mum came back from walking in the hills of Pakistan some years ago she showed us footage of some locals (who hadn't seen Westerners before) with a pet - and it was an Indian myna!

They're kind of cute in a way, and fairly smart, but they take over nesting hollows from native birds (mostly parrots) and breed like mad.

I think they used to be kept as cagebirds in Britain sometimes?
 
Thank you, Ian. I've just found a website dedicated to the Indian Myna and I have some understanding of the problems they cause now.

Your drawing is very good. Even I could tell what it was once you'd told me.

The chances of me spotting one here are very slim unless I am teleported back to a 1970s parlour where they were kept in cages and encouraged to speak naughty words to upset visiting vicars ( watch any Carry On movies for an example)

PS. Thank you for your reassurance xx
 

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