Final Year I

So.... now you get the promised post about my final year!

It all started with a video on the internet. It showed part of a short documentary about a new method to inseminate birds which was used in the Loro Parque Foundacion. Since I grew up with two ornithologists/nature photographers I was hook in an instance. A brand new scientific project about birds and how to protect bird species with it. AND there were no illustrations produced so far for it. Just perfect!!
So I contacted the LOF in Tenerife and after a few mails and calls my application got forwarded to Prof. Michael Lierz from the Giessen University who actually developed the new method with his research group.
A few more calls later I was happy that I could look forward to start my final project in september 2013 in Giessen.

In september I started with studying the birds (and their urogenital systems) I would portray. I visited a parrot breeder, different bird parks and bird of prey centers, the collection of the biodiversity center Naturalis and ofcourse the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish in Giessen.






But before I got to my finished illustrations I had to make many sketches:



The Pelvis of an amazon parrot





and the skeleton of an amazon parrot (without and with the sternum)





First sketches of the urogenital system of the femal saker falcon.