Isn’t this a beautiful bird drawing? It’s an abyssinian parakeet and the work of Edward Lear (1812-1888). Lear is perhaps most well-known for his nonsense poems and the drawings that accompanied them but, he was also a talented painter. His works included numerous landscapes of his native England and the wonderful book about parrots where this print is from. Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidæ, or Parrots contained 42 color plates like this one. Hopefully, I will be including more of them in the future. Just use the search feature and look for “Edward Lear” and bird and you should be able to find the ones I’ve posted here on Reusable Art.
Abyssinian parakeets are native to Somalia, Ethiopia and the Sudan.
This vintage Abyssinian parakeet drawing was originally done on a hand-colored lithograph printed in black on heavy wove paper. This book must have been like a treasure trove or original paintings worthy of framing, just as these digital copies are.
The bird is pretty shades green with black-tipped wings. He has red markings on the top of his head and around the eyes and his beak is pink. Some people call them Abyssinian lovebirds and other refer to these little green parrots as black-winged lovebirds.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
