secretary bird vs. black mamba acrylic painting
This was a fun little piece I did a while back of a secretary bird going up against a black mamba. Once I got savvy to these birds I knew I had to paint one, It was the beautiful almost luchador-esc plumage around the face that drew me to them, but upon finding out they're a vicious predator bird that snacks on black mambas by stomping them out, I was won over. I painted this one with that rikki tikki tavi, the fight could go to anyone style and tried to incorporate a hot feeling background seeings how both species are native to the african plains. hope you guys enjoy!
Love it, totally epic! The imagery of the birds fighting is extremely powerful and symbolic to me.
awesome! I'm glad you could find a connection with it
Hi @honeycombwinnie, had to resteem this as it's such an important symbol in Africa. Check this out - it's even part of South Africa's coat of arms!
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Thank you so much for representing it so ferociously in battle with a black mamba, which is deeply feared in Southern Africa (for good reason). And by the way, it's really cool to see secretary birds in the wild. They are even more fearsome "in bird" than in photos.
oh cool, thanks for the info on the south african coat of arms, I knew they're represented on a couple african coat of arms (sudan also), but it's great to here (or see) someone talk about it who has roots in africa and let me know just how important this bird is. I'm really glad you like and feel that I represented it well, and I can only imagine how great it would be to see this bird doing what it does best first hand.
A pleasure! I didn't realise they're also on the Sudanese coat of arms. I hope you get to see a secretary bird in action one day - mesmerising.