Maja Mielke (she/her)

Day 2 of my Ink-Birdtober challenge. 🪶🐦🍁✒️

The beautiful little 'I'iwi!

(reference photo by Melissa McMasters from Memphis, TN, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

#inktober #birdtober #birds #birdart #sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing

Here we go! Day 1 of my Ink-Birdtober challenge. 🪶🐦🍁✒️

We start with the Lilac-breasted Roller from Africa.

(reference photo by Laya Clode from Unsplash)

#inktober #birdtober #birds #birdart #sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing

Day 3 of my Ink-Birdtober challenge. 🪶🐦🍁✒️

The Resplendent quetzal!

(reference photo by Carlos Damian from Unsplash)

#inktober #birdtober #birds #birdart #sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing

Only one day left until October! 🍁🧡🍂

Last year was the first year I finished the #Inktober challenge—31 ink drawings in 31 days!

This year, I’ll go fully avian and use the #Birdtober prompt list by Andrea Holmes (aholmesartstudio.com).

LET’S GO!

Anyone else planning on doing Birdtober, Inktober, or any other drawing challenge? Let’s connect and do this together!

#birds #birdart #ink #drawing #illustration #sciart

Day 4 of my Ink-Birdtober challenge. 🪶🐦🍁✒️

The Gouldian finch!

(reference photo by William Warby from Unsplash)

#inktober #birdtober #birds #birdart #sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing

Retrieving cached food requires much more than just remembering where you buried your snacks.

Scrub jays also remember what they cached and when—and retrieve perishable snacks first! 🐦🧠🩵

👇 Learn more in my latest post for Beaks & Bones!
https://beaksandbones.substack.com/p/episodic-like-memory

(Original study: https://www.nature.com/articles/26216)

#BeaksAndBones #birds #science #research #scicomm #ornithology #jays

Brand new #research found that iron-containing cells in pigeons' livers may help them sense the Earth's magnetic field.

#Nature is weird. 🤯 #Birds are amazing. 🐦

Read the full story in my latest Beaks & Bones post. 👇
https://beaksandbones.substack.com/p/pigeon-macrophages

Original study: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady2486

#BeaksAndBones #science #birdsofmastodon #scicomm #ornithology #pigeons

I'm a bit obsessed with #butterflies at the moment, going out every day to observe and photograph them. I found Red admirals to be surprisingly tame! 😍🦋😍

#naturephotography #butterfly #nature

The immense work required for feeding chicks can cause serious overheating in #birds. 🥵

Researchers explored the consequences for both the parents and their chicks.

Read more in my latest blog post for Beaks & Bones 👇
https://beaksandbones.substack.com/p/keeping-cool

(Original study:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48582897 )

#BeaksAndBones #science #biology #ornithology #birdsofmastodon #scicomm

Let’s spread a nice #bird fact in the Mastodon universe! 🪶

Illustration by Maja Mielke. Ballpoint pen on paper, colorized digitally in #Krita.

#sciart #birdart #digitalillustration #illustration #natureart #birds #birdsofmastodon

Jetzt könnt ihr den Vogel des Jahres 2027 wählen! 🐦 🪶
https://www.vogeldesjahres.de/

Ich bin Team Kranich. Wen wählst du?

In my latest blog post for Beaks & Bones, I cover research that showed how extreme climate events can affect the #evolution of #songbirds through a fascinating chain of events.

Read the full story here:
https://beaksandbones.substack.com/p/drought-induced-evolution

original study:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj4478

#scicomm #birds #birdsofmastodon #BeaksAndBones #science #research #climatechange