Designing for Function - Part 3 Making A Custom Door Handle

In previous posts we have used a stationary pull to illustrate how a custom piece of door hardware is designed for lost wax casting, but what impact does a functional handle with moving parts have? The answer depends on the function and varies depending on whether the design is for a door- knob or lever and whether it is to be used as an entry door set or as a handle set for an interior passageway or privacy (think bathroom) door.

In this post we will use the set lizard passageway set to answer the question.

The passageway set is made up of several components, some are cast but others are either machined in metal or custom made to order by fastener manufacturers like Seastrom.

While the back-plate is a relatively straightforward piece to cast, the levers (left and right) need to be cast with a square hole for the ferrule and spindle which are the components that connect the levers together and that will connect with the latch that depresses and returns the lever. The 2 patterns, one for each lever, need to be machined for a square hole and how you accomplish this will depend on the medium used for the pattern. A ferrule is then added either to the pattern or to the subsequent wax replica. For bronze castings we machine our own proprietary custom ferrules in stainless steel an alloy that bonds with the molten bronze but as it melts at a much higher temperature than bronze does not distort or melt in the process. For steel castings, as a metal ferule would melt, we incorporate the ferrule into the pattern. The ferrule acts like a sleeve to hold the square 8mm spindle and it is machined with a tolerance that allows the spindle to fit tightly. A “C” spring clip is added under pressure to the outer rim of the ferrule, and this holds the lever to the back-plate.

The lever set must also be designed to function with a tubular latch. The spindle passes through a square hole in the latch, a component made by another manufacturer and that has an internal spring that enables the lever to be depressed to retract the latch tongue and which returns the lever to throw the tongue.

Depending on the weight of the lever, an auxiliary spring can be added to the ferrule to assist the latch and help prevent any sagging. The auxiliary spring is made in spring steel and as part of the design process the back-plate pattern is made with a stop which limits the motion of the spring to a 33 to 45 range.

The mechanical demands and therefore cost to create a new one-of-a-kind piece for a client are inherently expensive.

Boxer dog door knobs

Having officially launched our new collection of dog themed door hardware we wanted to share some of the background behind each dog breed.

We have four boxer dogs in our neighborhood with wonderful names, 2 are named Tank and Pistol, they are difficult to tell apart which given they are brothers is not too surprising. The other 2 are rescue boxers named Doctor and Dolly. Dr is a white boxer named after the well- known British show “Dr. Who” the other is named Dolly and as you probably guessed is a nod to Dolly Parton. My neighbor is a long- term fan of boxers and all his dogs have come from Boxer Rescue Los Angeles, a non-profit rescue center funded solely by private donations with a fully staffed kennel facility in the San Fernando Valley.

The creative end result of our neighborhood boxers  is a boxer head door knob set. The door knob exists as a functioning passageway set or can be used as a fixed door knob. The boxer head is also available as a simple door pull, or coat hook or as front door knocker. So far we have 8 breeds of dog but have 2 more on the design board which we hope to add by the end of this year or early part of next year.

All of the dog door knobs are made with the same eye for detail as our other lines of door hardware and made the same way using the lost wax method to create intricately detailed castings.

Animal and floral unique cabinet pulls

Our new cabinet pull website section makes plain the theme-based nature of Martin Pierce’s designs. For door hardware, after the initial design concept, the direction of each collection was dictated by functionality with each style needing to work as entry way handles, passageway levers and privacy levers and door knob sets. Cabinet pulls and knobs all perform the same function to open and close cabinet drawers and doors and this simple dictate allows for greater design freedom and whimsy.
Bamboo dresser pulls
All of our cabinet or dresser pulls are made to order as we are a limited production company and are very hands on, thus ensuring the high quality of each piece. The same does not hold true for the bamboo plant that was used to model the cabinet pull shown below. We are in the process of trying to eradicate this very resilient and invasive plant that regretfully was planted as a border plant and now threatens to extend its domain to include our entire garden. So, if you love the look of bamboo consider a more limited production version.

Orchid kitchen cabinet pull
In contrast to our bamboo plant our orchids are not very hardy and very selective as to when they flower and this may explain why we are so drawn to their beauty. Modelled on the orchids on display at the conservatory in the Huntington gardens a place worth visiting for it’s rich variety of tropical plants and trees.

Why research and development for custom hardware is expensive

The old and new schools for creating patterns and molds - part 2

Your design skill set and your preference for digital versus free hand designing may influence your choice when it comes to deciding how to create the pattern or file for casting.
Whichever road you take the research and development (R&D) costs will be significant. The R&D costs are often misunderstood, and many consumers have a hard time accepting that the pattern development can run into the thousands depending on the size and intricacy of the design. This cost is on top of the cost incurred in the design process (part 1), so perhaps we are stating the obvious when we state that custom, one of a kind door hardware, is inherently expensive.

Choice of medium for pattern making.

Regardless of whether the design is digital or old school and made with pencil and paper you should be able to use the same mediums when creating your pattern for use in investment casting or sand castings. If you have the budget and are developing a piece for high volume production, then die casting or 3D printing may be good options and may not require a pattern to be made. While die casting and 3D printing do not require a physical pattern, they depend on the design to be made with CAD/CAM software or comparable software that can capture the exact measurements and topography details of your design so that a virtual pattern can be created.


Mediums for Physical Patterns

The pattern for investment casting can be made from any medium that is both strong and non-permeable or that can be made strong by firing in a kiln. Your choice of medium will depend on your manual skills, can you carve or create a design in modelling clay? The choice will also depend on how dense the detail and undercuts are in your design, does the design have a lot of detail or is the design for a smooth piece with the detail confined to the edges? Our patterns are always made in a reductive way by carving or machining rather than by the additive clay modelling method.

Left cast trumpet flower Right hard blue wax pattern with gate in red wax

Mediums for carving or machining

Rigged foam –
High density rigid polyurethane foam comes in a variety of sheet sizes, thickness, and density. We typically use a medium 15lb per ft density. It can be machined on a bandsaw, turned on a lathe or used with cutting routers. It is ideal for moderately detailed patterns but it’s lack of tensile strength and brittle nature make it less useful for very detailed or large patterns.

Basswood & other woods
Basswood is stronger than rigged foam and finer details such as leaf ends or fingers tips that would be to fragile and brittle if rendered in foam are easy to create in this close-grained soft wood. Patterns created in basswood and foam need to be sealed with a paint primer or other non-permeable layer that act as a barrier to protect the pattern from liquid damage that may occur during mold making.

Blue jewelers’ wax
There are many types of wax available in block and sheet form that can be machined or carved to create a pattern, but we typically use a blue hard wax and pattern making.

Customizing a cabinet pull for a remodeled room

Occasionally I receive a call or email from a person looking for a cabinet pull to cover the holes that were unwittingly revealed when their kitchen or bathroom was remodeled.

 Our cabinet pulls are grouped by style in categories ranging from flying creatures to floral works to contemporary and futuristic pulls which can make it difficult when someone is looking for something merely to cover exposed holes. 

 The pages that were recently added to the cabinet hardware section of our site provide the center- to -center distance as part of the dimensional description and as a greyscale diagram making it easier to review which pieces will work or could be modified to work.

The mounting posts are inset from the top and bottom of the pull and their precise location depends on the style, weight and surface area of the pull.  As our work is made using the lost wax process some amount of customization is possible.

The mounting posts on the original pattern also act as gates through which wax and subsequently molten metal will flow. If the new center to center dimension is a little further or closer than our pattern we can modify the wax version and cut and re-position the posts so that their location will correspond to the existing holes of the cabinet. Such modifications are time consuming, and we would recommend a new pattern and mold be made for larger quantities.

Cabinet pulls undergo website re-model

It’s official, we have completed the remodel of the cabinet pull section of our website and hope that you will enjoy the new look and details.
Why the changes?
We have re-photographed our work in-house with the use of a light-box and a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera to better capture the detailed nature of our castings and to show that these fine details are not limited to one facet but are on all facets of each piece.
By showing different perspectives we hope to encourage customers to think outside the usual horizontal and vertical placement of pulls and consider different angles and directions for a more creative arrangement. Since our work is often described as whimsical customers should have some fun when facing the daunting task of planning their new home or remodel.

We hope we have made the task of pull placement easier with our black and white diagrams that show the width, height, depth and distance between mounting screws for each pull. The diagrams also show the distance between different points on a given line thereby removing some of the stress when figuring out the difference in meaning of “depth” versus “height” and “length”.

The new web pages also show the difference in appearance between our popular light and dark oil rubbed finishes. We still offer nickel plating and colored hot patinas so please contact us to discuss other finish options.
The images and diagrams have been complied in a new digital pdf that can be downloaded from each of the new pages or downloaded below.

Seagulls and Bears – unusual Hollywood neighbors

Unlike much of the country winter in Hollywood is usually warm and sunny making it a good time to enjoy a long walk to the historical Lake Hollywood aka the Mulholland dam.

Spending more time at my home-office I have become aware of the variety of birds who visit ranging from the melodious bulbuls and song sparrows to the deep throated sonorous crows and ravens. While seagulls may not be gifted with such distinctive voices, they make up for this with their sheer numbers and easy to follow daily trajectory to the small lake nestled below the Hollywood sign.

Hundreds of Seagulls resting in the morning sun on Lake Hollywood

The Mulholland Dam was constructed as a reservoir in the 1920’s and was named after the historical legend who is associated with its beleaguered history. The dam was almost identical in design to the St. Francis dam that sadly collapsed and killed hundreds of residents in the area we now know as Valencia or Santa Clarita. The St. Francis tragedy caused a public outcry and demands that the new dam be scrapped. As an alternative the water level of the dam was permanently limited to well below design capacity and the area south of the buttress was backfilled with vast amounts of soil and vegetation that now conceal the damns presence. The result over 90 years later is that dam no longer functions as a reservoir but as a lake that is home to thousands of seagulls and other water birds. The area south of the lake has beautifully matured with native shrubs and tall pines all guarded by a row of bear gargoyles in honor of our state residents.

 To see examples of how birds inspire our work.

Swallow cabinet pull

https://www.martinpierce.com/unusual-cabinet-pulls-insect-collection

To read more about the history of Lake Hollywood please visit:

https://la.curbed.com/2019/2/5/17434640/william-mulholland-dam-collapse-water-los-angeles-history

https://waterandpower.org/museum/Mulholland_Dam_and_Hollywood_Reservoir.html

New Cabinet Pull Direction for 2021

In 2021 we will be gradually be re-formatting our website so that our unique cabinet knobs and pulls can be viewed in greater detail and from different perspectives. This project started in 2020 and it has been quite an undertaking requiring each piece to be photographed several times, then clearly outlined in Photoshop and re-created as a dimensional diagram. We hope the result will allow viewers to appreciate the beauty of each pull and see how each is installed with either a single mount or double screw mount. The new pages will go live when all 70 pieces have received this attention so these posts will be a preview of what is to come.

Our cabinet pulls have been reorganized according to their style and on the number, we could fit onto one page for each collection. The size of the page did present a real challenge when it came to plants and creatures with somewhat arbitrary collections for flowers and plants and animals and flying creatures, but our hope is that viewers will be sufficiently inspired to browse all pages and not be deterred by categories.

The dragonfly is the piece we chose to represent our flying creatures and he/she is attached to with a single screw from the back of the cabinet drawer into the center post which is pre-drilled and screw ready, yes, all of our cabinet pulls come with screws.

The Hedgerow branch pull is attached with 2 screws also applied from the back of the cabinet drawer at a distance of 3 ½” between the centers of the screws. Many of our cabinet pulls can be adapted for surface mounting from the face of the piece but you will need to check with us to see if this is possible for the piece you are considering.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

In these dark times we do see some light at the end of the Covid tunnel and used our hopefulness and playfulness to create an imaginary tunnel with our real butterfly cabinet pulls.

May 2021 be a HAPPY YEAR for EVERYONE.

The small butterfly used here is one from our collection of flying creatures a rather whimsical and artistic collection of animal cabinet pulls. The patina used was a hot amber patina with black spots decorating the wings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT MARTIN PIERCE HARDWARE

We wish you festive seasonal cheer and hope that next year will be a happier and healthier year for all.

A Collage Made Using Our Hedgerow Small Tree and Our Moth Cabinet Pull

The flotilla of moths is a design that we will be staying with for the cover of our new cabinet pull catalogue which we will be adding to our site next year. Stay tuned as we update our website to include more cabinet pull photographs, drawing and other details.

How to Cast Bronze Butteflies - Good and Bad Runners and Gates

How to Cast Bronze Butterflies – Good and Bad Sprues and Gates
When designing a piece for investment or lost wax casting a lot of time is spent creating the original pattern and subsequent mold. When the pattern is created its shape and undercuts will determine whether one or more molds needs to be developed so that the detail of the original is captured and so that subsequent waxes can easily be released from the mold.

When the mold is being made it is important to anticipate how the molten metal will subsequently flow into the void of the ceramic shell. The shelling process and the function of the autoclave are discussed in earlier posts. The mold we made for the large butterfly was a two-part rubber mold and the pattern was carved in wood. We added wax runners and one large wax sprue to the butterfly pattern and made a hollow box to hold the butterfly. The area where the wax runner attaches to the pattern is often referred to as a gate. The number of runners and their size and location play a key role in determining whether the bronze will pour easily, and the casting will be successful.

The rubber mold is created by pouring a cold rubber solution into the box containing the butterfly with its runners attached. The rubber encases the butterfly and its attachments, and when set, the 2- part mold will be opened, the pattern will be removed, and a hollow mold will be left. Hot wax will then be poured in through the center hole or sprue and helped along by gravity and some gentle rotation will travel down the central sprue and into the runners to fill the void created around the butterfly pattern.
In this post I am including 2 examples of a well gated wax and a poorly gated wax together with shots showing the resulting bronze castings.
While it may be tempting to assume that more gates will ensure a successful casting, having more gates will impact the speed, pressure and temperature of the flowing bronze and the success of the casting. Having more gates will also increase the labor intensity of cleaning the casting as all the gates need to be ground off.

Unlike the butterfly on the left the bronze did not flow to fill the wing tip of the right butterfly so the casting was rejected and the bronze was melted down and re-cycled

A beautiful butterfly pull can only emerge from a perfect casting.

Customizing A Lizard Door Handle for A Glass Pane Door

The lizard heroic handles as is clear from their name are large sculptures and they are the signature pieces to this collection of door handles and cabinet pulls. The handle and escutcheon are welded together to make one entity but are cast in 2 halves. When the original pattern was carved we had to consider how the bronze would flow within the molds and made the decision to carve the body as one piece but carve the lizards toes as part of the stone plate. Had we decided to leave the toes as part of the lizard they would have been too fragile to support and would have been prone to distortion when made in wax or when invested with bronze.

The butterfly thumb latch when depressed opens the mortise latch

Forward position of the right lizard enables the head of the lizard to be grabbed with your right hand freeing the left hand to operate a thumb latch when used with of an operative mortise latch and butterfly thumb piece.

When asked if we could make either lizard narrower so that the handle could snuggly fit around the glass panes of an existing door my first reaction was no but I came to re-think my position when given the specifics dimensions of the door. Both the left and right lizards measure 5 ½” at their widest points but the narrower areas range from 2 ½” to 3 ¾” which gave us the possibility of modifying the back-plate and positioning the lizard to fit between the door panes. Since the toes of the lizard are part of the plate, we had to avoid these when slimming the plate during the wax stage. The right lizard overlaps the top edge of the plate so that it can be used in conjunction with a butterfly thumb latch when being used as part of an operative mortise set. The forward position of the right lizard and the position of the toes would have made it difficult to customize for this client’s door.

Left: Original Lizard Center: Orange area where wax to be cut Right: Modified Concept

Concept drawing showing position of modified left lizard

Happy Halloweeen

A very Happy Halloween to all of you from the bats, frogs and other creatures here at Martin Pierce Hardware.

Inspiration for Door Hardware from the Grand Canyon and Zion

The only question raised by our journey to the Grand Canyon and beyond, was why had it taken us 40 years to make the trip? We had heard wondrous reports from friends over the years but had chosen more exotic vacations in Europe and Canada and had relegated this local scene to the back burner. So, when our trip to Rome was cancelled, we found the silver lining to the Corona Virus and planned an RV trip to Arizona and Utah.

As my blog is written as an extension of our website I wondered what or how this trip had anything to do with our hardware designs, which in turn prompted the question of how nature influences our thought processes, specifically, Martin Pierce’s hardware designs. I have often stated that nature is the primary source of Martin’s design ideas, but the process is far from causal and is more subtle and indirect. While Martin does on occasion search out a plant or rock or animal as a study piece for a handle or back-plate, he spends more time simply and randomly photographing what he sees and finds interesting and in so doing creates a mental library of images.  

So, having explained the reasoning behind this post let me share some of the spectacular awesome sights we saw on this 9-day road trip in the company of Iris our canine family member.

Grand Canyon South Rim Storm Drifting In – The straight horizon created by the movement of the tectonic plates that raised the flat plateaus upward

Female Elk drinking rain water – the blurred pixels are reminiscent of the Impressionist Period

Look carefully to see the well disguised Grand Basin Gopher Snake. While this snake, as with most snakes is harmless, the jury is out on whether ophidiophobia would make a snake handle unmarketable. Our lizard collection of door handles is popular so maybe we should launch a snake collection we would love to hear your thoughts.

We took countless pictures but none captured the depth and magnificence of the Grand Canyon.

How to accent a minimalist Shaker armoire

Our cabinet pull collection evolved from our days as furniture makers. The first pieces were one of a kind and were 2 hand sculpted sycamore leaves carved in walnut that were used to open the pocket doors of a custom cabinet. The piece was commissioned by neighbors who became close friends and the piece was a collaborative effort with wood choices and Japanning details reflecting the ideas of 4 people. All by way of saying we enjoy working with creative people and are invariably pleased by what our clients create.

photo courtesy of Susan Cyphers

Susan Cyphers was in the process of remodeling her bathroom and had commissioned an Amish cabinet maker in her Chagrin Falls, Ohio neighborhood to make a Shaker style armoire. The armoire was custom made to house Susan’s linens and towels and in true Shaker style was minimalist in style and devoid of any ornamentation. A brief google search revealed that the Shaker philosophy was based on the principles of simplicity, humility and honesty and this was reflected in their choice of local woods and their avoidance of wood veneers or anything less than true. In keeping with Amish tradition, the cabinet was constructed with hand-made mortise and tenon joints rather than joints made by power table saws that are held together with dowels and screws. The result was a very well made beautifully proportioned cabinet with clean lines but one that really needed a decorative finale.

photo courtesy of Susan Cyphers

Susan was initially drawn to the frog cabinet pulls that are quite animated but was looking for a more eclectic grouping and selected the geckos for the upper doors and the moth and butterfly for the drawers below. The choice was inspired, and Martin and I love the way the geckos have been positioned one facing up the other down. The scale and center positioning of the drawer pulls also works well and the result is stunning piece that Susan’s imagination helped to create.

Lizard Door Handles Insired by Nature Pragmatically Adapted

The lizard we see most often in the Hollywood Hills is the California Alligator lizard, so named for its long snout and back patterning which is similar to the American alligator found in the southern states.
The similarities continue as both species have long tails and short legs and enjoy a carnivorous diet. The smaller of these 2 reptiles’ preys on much smaller creatures eating a wide variety of invertebrates but also to my surprise feeding on small birds and bird eggs.
There are several varieties of the California Alligator lizard and the ones we see in Los Angeles are distinguished by their pale iris color and by their grey scaly skin. While lizards have a 10 to 15 year life span and live here throughout the year, they tend to me more noticeable in the warm summer months when we spend more time outside and these days we are all spending a lot more time outside. The larger than life lizards in our collection of door hardware were loosely modeled on the Alligator lizard as can be seen in their long tails and pointed snout. However, as with all our nature inspired hardware designs considerable artistic license was used to modify the shape and size of both the lizard’s legs and scales to make the door handle pleasing to hold and easy to grip.

To create the lizard handles Martin’s first step was to sketch from memory his impressions of the Alligator lizard. Using this he drew a second lizard to form a pair of right and left facing door handles.

Dragonflies renew the life cycle

Almost a year has passed since we shared the photographs, we took of mating dragonflies filmed over the air space above our small pond and not surprisingly we are seeing the same event now. This time we were more prepared and were able to take a short video showing a female dropping down into the pond to deposit her eggs from her ovipositor. While we were not quick enough to video the 2 mating, we will be making this our goal for next year.

We were also able to photograph the blue dasher dragonfly who hopefully will be making an egg deposit to our pond. Both the red/orange flame skimmer and little blue dragonfly have the same 3 stage life cycle from egg to aquatic larva (nymph) and then to colorful adult. The flame skimmer has a longer life span living for up to 1 to three years as compared to the blue dasher’s maximum life span of 6 months. However, both species spend the larger part of their lives submerged in water as developing larva and it is here in their less attractive state that they grow on a diet of other insect larvae and some small fish. It is perhaps for this reason that the idea of fish-eating dragonflies developed since this behavior is common in the non-adult flame skimmer nymph.

We have mosquitofish in our pond who together with flame skimmers eat mosquito larva. The mosquitofish also eat dragonfly , so it seems only fair that they in turn are eaten by the dragonfly nymphs.

The dragonfly shown below from our collection of insect cabinet pulls was loosely based on the shape of the slimmer blue dasher but we have often used the muted brown red coloring of the female flame skimmer when coloring the pull using a hot pigmented oxide.

Nesting Birds and Their Noisy Ways

While our lives may have been disrupted by the corona virus, this has not impacted our local bird life and our neighborhood is very much alive with the sounds of squabbling and aggressive birds. Mockingbirds have made a nest in the bougainvillea bush in our neighbors garden and the parents are feeding their young with petals from our guava tree and battling and haranguing any potential predators that come too close to their young chicks. The predators who pose a threat include squirrels and cats who despite their claws and size are no match for the mockingbird bombers who dive and peck them ceaselessly.

Alert Parent of young Mocking Bird chicks on guard for predators

These admirable parenting qualities are not limited to the mocking birds and a pair of scrub jays, thankfully nesting in a different tree, spend large amounts of time battling and diving at crows, ravens and the occasional Cooper’s hawk who are local habitants of the Hollywood Hills.
We have lived in the hills for many years but never grow tired of the local bird population which continues to inspire our work. What is still remarkable is the incredible variety of bird life that we see and hear, and which vary with the season’s migratory paths. The beautiful oriels with their orange chests have arrived as have the rufous hummingbirds and both compete for the sugary solution of our bird feeder. To accommodate the oriels larger and wider beak we have removed some of the artificial flowers on the feeder which occasionally results in the odd bee finding its way inside.

Juvenile Mocking Bird Learning the Value of Guava Flowers

If you are searching for an unusual bird cabinet pull or possible a jay door handle then you may want to visit these pages on our site.

Inspiring Entry Door - Bee Door Knobs and Insect Art

Choosing the right doorknob for our new insect paneled entry door was not a difficult task as we have 4 styles of animal and reptile to choose from. The carnivorous lizard would have been an obvious choice but as he occupies center stage on our entry gate, we decided to opt for the bumble bee knob.
The bumble bee is cast in bronze and we finished this set with a dark oil rubbed patina which plays well with both the red and black colors of our entry door. To accentuate the bees round abdomen and eyes and to highlight the ridges on the honeycomb back plate we lightened these sections for contrast.

The honeycomb back-plate can function as both an escutcheon for the bee knob or as trim that can be used to house a keyed cylinder. The bee knob when turned activates a latch that opens the door and when released keeps the door closed. The honeycomb is machined to take a spindle that passes through the port of the latch to activate the latch and to keep the knobs firmly attached to each other.

The honey comb for the keyed cylinder is machined on the outside with a large 1 3/8” hole to house the keyed cylinder and on the inside with a small ½” to house the turn piece that enables the door to be locked or unlocked from the inside. If you study the photo of the inside trim you will notice that the turn piece is styled on a small cockchafer beetle.

Our entry door took several weeks to create and our posts document how the panels were created so if you want to turn one of your doors into a gallery of bird, animal or flower paintings then please do read our earlier posts of japanning and gold leafing. Needless to say there is no limit to the subject matter for decorative panels, so harness your imagination and create something fabulous.

Japanned Gold Leaf Panels with Bumble Bee Knob

Black Crested Red Whiskered Bulbul

With more time to walk we are able to see more Bulbuls in the Hollywood hills and have managed to photograph several.
We first encountered this petite bird with colorful markings in the 1990’s at the Huntington gardens and felt quite privileged to site this bird that we have always associated with Asia and tropical environments. What we hadn’t realized was that the Bulbul was a common resident of the park in the 1970’s and 80’s and was on the A list as a non-indigenous species and destined for eradication. Thankfully sufficient public and birder opposition resulted in the suspension of this policy and now we enjoy this cheery musical creature in our own neighborhood.

I had a great deal of fun reading about the bird’s diet and habitat on Wikipedia and as a result know this passerine bird to be a fugivore. For those unfamiliar with these terms they simply mean that this is a bird that likes to perch and lives on a fruit diet. As a frugivore it makes sense that the Bulbul now thrives in Florida and southern California where fruit is abundant.
While the Bulbul is named for its small red-whiskers the males back crest and red abdominal feathers are much easier to spot as can be seen here. Like all passerines the Bulbul has three toes that point forward and one pointing back which makes perching an easy task.
If you are looking for a less flighty bird and one that you would like to use as a cabinet pull then consider the swallow pull or if you are searching for a wall statement check out our bronze jay bird.

To read more about the Bulbul’s near eradication please the article by Mary Barker


For those seeking to improve their ornithological knowledge or looking for words for Scrabble Wikipedia is great resource.