Choose your FREE gifts here Spend £50 get 1 free gift | Spend £85 get 2 free gifts

Shipping - UK delivery Free P&P over £75 Last posting date for Xmas: 20 December

Enjoy a trip to Robert's gallery in Thixendale | New exhibition Visiting info - Opening times - Directions

This painting was inspired by filming kingfishers underground

This painting was inspired by filming kingfishers underground

This painting was inspired by filming kingfishers underground

This painting of a kingfisher is the result of a secret study of these brilliant birds inside their dark underground nest.

kingfisher artwork

I built a bespoke nest chamber and installed hidden cameras inside so that I could watch what happens when these brightly-coloured birds disappear underground to bring up their young in the dark.

Filming Kingfishers Underground


And I discovered an extraordinary world under there. For a start, who knew that the chicks looked like aliens? Scroll down to watch my video filmed inside the nest and turn the sound on to hear the strange buzzing noises they make! These birds don't get their feathers until a week before the fledge - I suspect this is to keep them clean as the nest gets pretty mucky - and when these eventually grow through they look like steel pins, only becoming the brilliant blue plumage that we all recognise much later.

Film Reveals How Kingfishers Cope In Pitch Black Nests


It is also so dark in the nest that the adult birds cannot find their chicks' beaks when they deliver a fish! Luckily the chicks have tiny spots of luminous white on their cheeks to help locate their gaping beaks- but even so it can be difficult lining up - watch how a fish wobbles about in the effort. 

Filming Kingfisher Brooding Inspires Painting


Notice too how helpless these chicks are. They are utterly dependent on the adults to keep them warm and when the grown-up birds are out hunting, the chicks have to lean on one another for support. It was this vulnerability that inspired my latest painting. I chose to feature the adult male as he brooded the chicks and painted directly from a photograph. Watch the composition come together in the film.

Click on the image below to watch the footage underground and to see the painting take shape:

https://youtu.be/ZGpIhhPY3uc

 

Kingfisher Art


For more paintings inspired by this project follow the link below.

https://www.robertefuller.com/my-collection-of-kingfisher-paintings/

 

Read More: 


My underground studies became the subject of a BBC Springwatch episode. Read more about it here: 

https://www.robertefuller.com/the-story-behind-my-tv-kingfisher-film/

Related Posts

Long-tailed tit | Limited edition print | Shop nowLong-tailed tits...
Photographing a black grouse lekOne of the most incredible wildlife...
Now is the time to put up a nest box...
It's Valentine’s Day soon. Perhaps you’ll buy a card, choose...

6 comments

[…] This Painting Was Inspired by Filming Kingfishers Underground […]

How I Built an Artifical Bank to Film Kingfishers Underground | Kingfisher Art Studies - Wildlife Artist Robert E Fuller,

Thank you

Anonymous,

Thank you it makes my day to watch your wildlife cameras.

freda fenwick,

That was awesome to watch such beautiful birds and beautiful paintings.

Joanne,

Thank you

Anonymous,

That was amazing! Such lovely birds and you have painted them perfectly

Rosie Kind,

Leave a comment

Please note: comments must be approved before they are published.