Cardinal
The male Cardinal is one of the iconic birds of North America and we are lucky to have this brilliantly colored bird in the deserts of Arizona since it is primarily an eastern bird. The closely related pyrrhuloxia is slightly larger and the male has red only on the wings, crest and tail. I have portrayed the Cardinal here perched on the branch of a flowering Blue Paloverde. Instead of drawing the overlay for each color in ink, I have to cut the appropriate shapes from stiff paper and tape them to the transparent overlays since I developed a tremor in my drawing hand, a penalty of advancing age.