Birds of (our own) Paradise

Our town in Zululand, Eshowe, is a bird watchers' paradise, and I started off this year by completing a series of nine bird watercolours for a local 4-star B&B, called "Birds of Paradise". Hugh Chittenden, reknowned bird photographer (currently involved with revising the Robberts' Birds of Southern Africa), has kindly let me use some of his photographs as references.
I have included a picture of the entire collection, featuring the Purple Crested Turaco, Woolly Necked Stork, Speckled Mousebird, Crowned Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbills, Trumpeter Hornbill, Burchell's Coucal, Nerina Trogons and Green Pigeon. The Purple Crested Turaco, Woolly Necked Stork and Crowned Hornbills frequent our garden on a daily basis and the Trumpeters come every afternoon for their last snack of pawpaw flowers in the tree by the kitchen before flying off to their night-time roost.

Each of the pictures measure 26 x 36cm. Although I've also included a picture of the Ground Hornbill's face (with those big eye lashes), the digital images do not do justice to the detail on the real paintings.

To watch a slide show of the individual bird paintings, go to: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/ernaspace/birds