Yellow-breasted Warbler (Seicercus montis)
Mixed media, framed
12 x 9 inches plus frame
USD $450.00
This tiny bird weighs about 5 grams. They are found throughout much of Southeast Asia, including Borneo, where I saw them on Mount Kinabalu. It is also in the Philippines, on Palawan, and on the Malayan Peninsula, as well as Sumatra, Flores and Timor. Not surprisingly, it has several subspecies, and I have shown the nominate form, from Borneo. They eat tiny insects, and have also been called the Yellow-breasted Flycatcher-Warbler. This is also a painting of a very large and strange flower, a species of Nepenthes pitcher plant, Nepenthes villosa, found only on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu. The juxtaposition of the tiny, widely distributed, common bird and this large, strangely exotic flower with its extremely limited range intrigued me. I saw both on the trail leading to the top of the mountain, the tallest in southeast Asia. The figures are approximately life size.