Today I went with Brian Pettitt-Schieber (who shall hereafter be known as Bri-Bri) to the National Aviary of the United States, which is located in Pittsburgh of course. Oh Pittsburgh. The Aviary is home to some 600+ distinct species of birds, and many American Flamingos are in residence there. Bri-Bri and I spent about an hour and a half in the Aviary, taking in many of the exhibits before going to the wetlands to study our birds (Bri-Bri is a heron).
It was interesting to compare the flamingo to other birds, considering that some birds have a distinct horizontal head-bobbing associated with walking, and the flamingo does not. Instead, their head rocks very subtly up and down, but it is a very small, almost unnoticeable motion. Additionally, while other birds lead with their legs, flamingos distinctly lead with their heads and necks. When moving or turning, their head turns first, the neck twists with it, and then the legs compensate for the change.
I was glad to be able to spend a great deal of time sketching the flamingos and taking notes as I observed them. I need to be as accurate as possible when I start to build more intricate costume pieces, like the beak.
(Page 1 of sketches)
(Page 2 of sketches)
(Page 3 of sketches)
One of the things I paid special attention to today, bearing in mind Matt’s warning against the “greatest hits” method of performance, was the flamingos habitual action, rather than its goal-oriented action, such as eating or attracting mates. Flamingos have a number of habitual actions, including shaking their head sharply from side to side, neck raised in the air. They often do this after having dipped their head underwater, so this presumably shakes water from the head. Flamingos also sometimes beat the surface of the water with one foot repeatedly, occasionally with the wings extended. They also tend to flee rather than engage in prolonged confrontations—I observed a brief altercation between two flamingos that consisted of a few caws and beak-jabs before one of them took off running, wings spread.
On a personal note, Sam and Kyle and I looked at a house today. It was nice on the inside, but proved to be a much greater distance from campus than we had anticipated, so we’re going to try and find a closer place.
Tomorrow I'll be going to Goodwill and working to assemble more costume-pieces. I'm thinking of trying to find a pink swim cap.
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