Alabama Yellowhammer

Here is my first entry in my personal challenge to draw something from every state. I'm working through the states alphabetically and this is Alabama's state bird. They call it a Yellowhammer. Its real name is a Northern Flicker. The "Yellowhammer" is  the yellow shafted variety of the species found mostly in the east. The red shafted variety is more common out west. I've seen and photographed several of the reddish version, so it was fun to study the yellow version.

I borrowed my son's set of Prismacolor colored pencils to draw this.  I remember that I was always jealous of the kids in my high school art classes that had such an expensive box of pencils.   My son doesn't seem to share my reverence for them though.  In fact, he often forgets he has them. All the same, I'm going to go easy on borrowing them.