American Redstart Egg

Redstart Egg Drawing by Trudy Smoke

I fell in love with eggs when I started to draw them.  I couldn’t believe all the variety.  I knew there were more than the eggs I bought in the food store, and I knew the robin’s egg because of the color, but that was about it.  Drawing them opened a new world to me.

Here’s a good example: The American Redstart egg is about .6” or 16 mm, about the diameter of a dime, as compared to the American Robin’s egg that is 1.1” or 28 mm or the Canada goose egg that is 3.3” or 84 mm.  As an artist, I had to be aware that the American Redstart’s eggs range in color from creamy white with brown blotches, mostly at the top, to all brown.  I like to think of how they fit in the 2-3” long and 2-3” high nest that the female builds for her clutch or brood of 1-5 eggs.  I wonder if the brown blotches are turned toward the top of the nest to camouflage and protect the eggs from predators.