Create a piece of art using this bird template and natural objects you can find lying around outside!
Many birds have evolved striking feather colours and markings, making them some of the brightest animals on Earth. Their colours and marking have different functions from social status to attracting mates! If you head out to your garden or local green space (or even to a window!), you should be able to see an array of colours, from a sunny yellow goldfinch to a red-bellied bullfinch to a blue tit’s brilliant blue.
Blue Tit (c) Gillian Day
This activity involves heading outside to collect a variety of natural materials, such as leaves and petals, to create your own colourful bird using our printable template (download available below).
Remember to avoid picking any living plants! See what you can find lying on the ground instead…
What you will need:
- Printed bird template
- Container to collect natural materials (e.g., Tupperware, bucket)
- Natural materials such as leaves, petals, and grass
- Glue (optional)
- Colouring pens or paint (optional)
How to create your natural art:
- The natural materials you collect will used to fill in the bird’s body. Think about the colour and shape of the body and the feathers. Does your bird want to stand out with bright colours? Does it want its feathers to be a warning to other birds to stay away? Or does it want to camouflage in with its surroundings?
- Head outside with a container and collect a variety of natural materials for your bird – always try to find fallen materials rather than picking directly from a flower or tree.
- Create the bird’s body by using the natural items by simply placing or sticking the items you found onto the template.
- You could also add some colour by either colouring in sections of your template, or you can paint the objects you found and use them to create different prints.
- Remember to return any unused natural materials once you’ve completed the activity – everything in nature has its place!
Here is a fabulous green bird as an example…
(c) Rachel Faichnie
Share photos of your bird designs using #DiscoverLearnPlay