My Favorite Gentling

Consider the flammulated owl, a diminutive bird measuring only 6 inches tall, with a wingspan of 14 inches. Its fluffy feathers speak to its name: “Flammulated” means “little flame,” or “of a reddish color.” The plumage provides the perfect camouflage for the mountainous pine forests where the owl makes its home.

Birders prize a flammulated owl sighting because the owls only feed on insects at night. During the day, they hunch close to the trees, difficult to spot. The low “hoot” of the male is described as “ventriloquial,” as it can be almost impossible for humans to locate the bird from the sound. The flammulated owl, with its wise gaze, is my favorite Gentling.

Each of my family members at the Austin Public Library, we’ve spent countless hours paging through the bird paintings of Stuart W. and Scott G. Gentling. As boys, the twin brothers, who moved from Minnesota to Fort Worth when they were 5, fell in love with the work of John James Audubon, the ornithologist and painter. The Gentlings proceeded to devote their lives to creating jaw-dropping watercolors of bird life (Stuart passed away in 2006; Scott in 2011). The brothers were well known in Fort Worth, where they lived together in a home they filled with art and endowed with a “party wing.”