South Dakota-based sculptor Jim Green presented one of the most alluring sculptures on display last year. His Arctic Huntress, an exemplary depiction of a snowy owl, was a favourite for its realism and arresting likeness of the northern hunter.

This year his work on display is a different type of bird – smaller and less threatening to others – but as always its detail is superbly realized.

Three factors were formative in his career path and maturation as an outstanding wildlife sculptor. First and foremost was a love of nature in all its forms. The ability to spend time in nature, observing and learning, coupled with working and learning about metals in an industrial environment set him on his way to where he is now.

Green has won numerous awards and honours for his moving, intricately detailed studies of birds (primarily), and for using those sculptures positively to spark awareness of habitat destruction and the need to protect threatened and endangered species

His belted kingfisher here is another of his striking avian sculptures. The distinctive crest – ragged and spiky – the strong, emphatic bill and the top-heavy nature of the kingfisher are spot on. Green adds a fishing fly to the branch he has his male sitting on, indicative of their feeding ways and close association with water.

This is one of the few bird species where the female is more colourful than the male. Green, with tongue firmly in cheek, claims artistic license in adding the band of red across the breast, usually only found on females.

Artistic license, to say nothing of a clever title, is permitted of this avian sculptor extraordinaire. Jim Green knows his birds through decades of observation – he presents them to a global audience in lovely bronze, each one hand painted and created with love and care.

www.jimgreenart.com