Crosslink Critters

Blue-throated macaw:

The blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis; previously Ara caninde), also known as the Caninde macaw or Wagler’s macaw is a macaw endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia. In 2014 this species was designated by law as a natural patrimony of Bolivia, where it is known as barba azul, which means ‘blue beard’ in Spanish. Until 2010, it was hunted by natives to make feathered “Moxeño” headdresses for “machetero” ritual dances.

Recent population and range estimates suggest that about 350–400 individuals remain in the wild. Its demise was brought upon by nesting competition, avian predation, and a small native range, exacerbated by indigenous hunting and capture for the pet trade. Although plentiful in captivity, it is critically endangered in the wild and is protected by trading prohibitions.

The name “Wagler’s macaw” is in honor of German herpetologist Johann Georg Wagler, who processed many of Johan Baptist von Spix’s Brazilian collections at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich, and first described the blue macaws for a European readership in Monographia Psittacorum (1832).

Resources come from Wikipedia

Work process:

Firstly, I drew the feature of blue-throated macaw. As the first step, this helped me better understanding basic structure of the bird.

Next, I considered about the materials I’ve got and drew this first draft of macaw. Though it is simple and a little bit ideal, this sketch paved the way for future model making.

The sketch above shows the materials I decidedto use. I use all of them at last.

Then, I drew different perspective of blue-throated macaw and tried to simplify it into parts of basic shapes. At this time, I was considering about how can this birds stand with claws so I made some sketches of shelves. Unfortunately, both of them didn’t work.

This was the time I began making models. As you can see I marked all the materials and drew specific ways I would try to make parts on the bird. It was more realistic though, but during making I found a lot of splicing ways were still too idealistic.

This was the time I starting making beak. It needed a lot of calculations. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in this process.

And these three pictures are the final model. You can see a lot of difference from two drafts before. I guess we won’t know our draft unless it is the last second.

Related posts:

I asked myself this question on my own About Me page using RAQs, (Rarely Asked Questions) instead of FAQs. I had a lot of fun with this so I thought I’d put the question out for others to engage with…