Meet the Artist
November 11, 2022
Sharon Clay, Curator of Animal Programs
With every stroke of the brush, the painting gets better. Vibrant splashes of greens, reds, and purples bring it all to life. The artist has continued to develop his craft over the last six years. His name is Ruckus, and he is a Yellow-billed magpie!
Ruckus was only a fledgling when he was found by some people after he fell out of a tree. Trying to “help” him actually made it so that he was no longer able to be released back into the wild. When a bird is hatched, they have no information in its brain, and the first thing they learn is its identity. It is the first domino in a long line of them that is needed for survival. They do this through auditory and visual cues. Once learned, it is imprinted for life. Since they are usually with their parents, they easily learn this. But when a bird is with humans during this imprinting period, they see humans and hear human sounds and learn that as their identity. Without the proper “domino falling,” the rest cannot either. These are called human imprints; once animals experience this, they will never be able to return to the wild where they belong.
Ruckus arrived at Turtle Bay at only four weeks of age. Yellow-billed magpies are members of the most intelligent family of birds, the Corvid family. They share this family with Jays, Crows, and Ravens. Because of their high level of intelligence, we are challenged with keeping their lives in human care interesting and stimulating. We achieve this with enrichment. There are many forms of enrichment, depending on the individual and species; for Ruckus, he has learned to paint! In order to paint, he had to learn to pick up a brush, hold the brush, touch the brush to the paper, and finally make movements with it across the paper. It is a collaborative effort; we pick the colors and hold the paper for him, and he does the brushwork. Of course, every stroke earns him an extra treat, which is just the icing on the cake!