“Of white and tawny, black as ink,
Yellow, and undefined, and pink,
And piebald, there are droves I think.

(Buff kine in herd, gray whales in pod,
Brown woodchucks, colored like the sod,
All creatures from the hand of God.)

And many of a hellish hue;
But, for some reason hard to view,
Earth’s bluish animals are few.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Another piece for the now completed Endangered Ark, which is available for PreSale!!! [link]

The Colorful Puffleg (the “miraculous” bird) is a critically endangered hummingbird, one of 11 species in its Genus, Eriocnemis. These hummingbirds are called “ pufflegs” for obvious reasons; the local name “Colibri de Zamarros” means “hummingbird with hotpants” since his poofs tend to have a cinnamon tint.

Originally discovered in 1967, the continued existence of these birds was proved only in 1999 and an estimate of 50-250 individuals alive puts them on the Critically Endangered list. They live on the steep slopes of a small section of Western Colombian cloud forest between the altitudes of 2200 and 2800 meters. Colorful Pufflegs feed on a variety of orchids, bromeliads, cavendishia, and melastomes.

In the 1960’s and 70’s the local economy was based on a fruit crop of “lulo” or naranjilla. In the 1980’s, when the crop was destroyed by a fungal disease and pests, the logging began again. To facilitate this business, an old mule track was widened into a road. Ironically, this road caused mudslides which opened up the land for low growing flowering bushes that attracted and led to the discovery of the pufflegs. The continued deforestation of its habitat threatens to wipe out not only the tiny population of this hummer, but also another 16 endangered bird species, two endangered frog species and many other rare birds, amphibians, butterflies and plants that only occur in this part of the world. Illicit opium and coca crops also threaten the rich biodiversity of these tropical forests.

Conservation efforts include the protection of 5,000 acres of cloud forest, education for the local communities, and replanting the lola crops as they do not infringe on the surrounding forests.

This bird is so rare I only came across 2 tiny photo online. One was on the National Geographic website and the name of the photographer was listed. (As an aside, that was pure luck, I was looking at something else there, not searching for references. The photo was labeled as another kind of hummingbird!) A quick google search got me the email address and I wrote him explaining what I was doing and asked if it was possible for larger version of the photo and perhaps some information about the bird.

Luis A. Mazariegos Hurtado, Ph.D., who co-discovered a new species of puffleg in 2001, the Gorgeted Puffleg, replied with SIX large photos for me to use and a wonderful PDF of information about the whole genus. As a nerd I was just as excited about the measurements of the 5th retrix as the photos. He also helped me with my original sketch, which I feel still isn't accurate to the live animal.

I was so excited and grateful for all his help! He has a charity, [link] which protects endangered hummingbirds of the Colombian Neotropics.

And so, I pledge 100% of the profits from print sales to this charity. There will be a 1/1 Jumbo, 25 smaller Limited Editions, and small open edition.