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Art by Barry Kent MacKay

Artwork - 242)
Limpkin (Aramus guarauna)

The Limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is a tropical and subtropical species of bird famous for its very loud call, a sort of plaintiff yell, interspersed with chuckling rattles. There is a good chance you have heard it, if (unlike me!) you are a Harry Potter fan, as the bird’s voice was used for the cry of a hippogriff in the movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. But I may, myself, have heard it in the background of the jungle movies about Tarzan, that I loved as a kid. Like the vocalizations of loons and kookaburras, it is a sound that carries a sense of wildness near the edge of sanity, even if never to be heard in Africa, or the North Sea, where, Google tells me, Azkaban is imaginarily supposed to be.

Ornithologists ponder the relationship of Limpkins, currently classified as the sole member of the family Aramidae. Latest evidence suggests common ancestry with cranes and rails. The bird does have an odd gait, like a limp, the origin of the most often used English name. There are several colloquial names in English, Spanish and Portuguese, mostly referring either to the loud calls, or the resemblance of the birds’ manner of walking to a limp.

The species is well-known in the swamps and Everglades of Florida, and the low wetlands of the Gulf Coast, parts of Mexico, throughout the West Indies, and much of South America, being absent from highlands and arid regions, although Limpkins inhabit dry brushland in some regions, and where extirpated by hunting or habitat loss. There are four subspecies, with the nominate one found in South America, and distinguishable by far less white spotting on the dorsal surface.

The species is well known for consuming large snails, particularly apple and moon snails (Pomacea and Natica spp, respectively) but also other snails, plus clams and mussels and various invertebrates and well as small herptiles, and some vegetal matter. The large snails that are primary prey are adapted to alternating high and low water levels, and have a well developed operculum, which is like a thin plate, that can seal off the entrance through which the animal’s soft body can emerge, or behind which it is protected during draught, and which provides protection against predators. But the Limpkin’s long, strong beak can deftly remove the operculum and extract the edible parts without damaging the shell. The snails also have gills that allow them to respire underwater, but Limpkins can plunge their heads before the surface to find and grab the hapless snails.

Last year this species, long anticipated, finally showed up in Ontario! This painting was used for the cover of the current issue of Ontario Birds, journal of the Ontario Field Ornithologists, in which the discoveries are documented. It is in what I call “field guide” style, perhaps more “illustration” than “art”, and designed to show a maximum amount of the color and pattern of the bird, thus a side view, which was reversed for compositional reasons (see: http://ofo.ca/library/serve/ob-42-2/index.html?page=1). Surroundings are meant to evoke habitat without detracting from the central figure.

The painting is in oils on a birch panel that is about 14 by 11 inches in size.

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