How to Draw A Bird – A Step by Step Guide

Bird Drawing in just 8 Easy Steps!

Birds are some of the most varied animals you can find in nature. From giant, powerful eagles and ostriches to tiny, delicate hummingbirds there is an almost infinite variety of birds to behold.

There are billions of bird lovers in the world, and they love to immortalize their favorite feathered friends in photos, sculptures, paintings and of course drawings.

If you are a bird fan that’s been wanting to learn how to draw a bird, then you’re in luck with this guide!

We created this simple, step-by-step guide on how to draw a bird in 8 easy steps to have you drawing some beautiful birds in no time!

Prepare For This Bird Drawing With These Tips

We’re not going to deny that the guide on how to draw a bird that lies before you has some challenges. Drawing birds can be surprisingly tricky.

This is because of their dainty, detailed bodies and the various textures on them such as their feathers and the texture of their legs and beaks.

We will be breaking it down into smaller steps throughout this guide, but don’t feel shy about making it easier for yourself. This could take a few different forms, depending on your preferences when drawing.

You may want to draw the bird out with your pencils first, erasing any lines that don’t look right. This allows you to draw without fear of failing.

You could also simplify the design even further if you’re struggling. If you look at the later images of this guide, you will see that this bird drawing is somewhere between being cartoony and realistic.

You could make it even more cartoony if that is a style that you find easier to work with. Or, you may actually prefer to draw in a more detailed style, in which case you could make the drawing more realistic.

It would not only make the drawing easier, but it would also make it more unique to you, and you may prefer the new style. You could also look up some pictures of real birds to aid you as you draw.

Even if they’re not matches for the bird in our guide, it will still help you ro visualize the structure of the bird’s body. Try to find photos of birds that are relatively similar and that are facing the same direction if you can.

Hopefully, these tips will help to make this guide even easier for you!

 

how to draw bird in 8 steps

How to Draw a Bird – Let’s get Started!

Step 1bird drawing step 1

For the first step in this guide on how to draw a bird, the first thing you need is a light pencil to draw a medium-sized circle.

We’re using a pencil for this step because it’s going to be a guide for us to keep the shape and perspective looking good.

If you struggle to draw a perfect circle freehand, there are tools like a drawing compass that can help you draw a perfect circle really easily.

Once you have your guiding circle, use a pen or darker pencil to draw in a small, triangular beak on the left-hand side. Then, using your guide circle, carefully draw in the top of the head as you can see in the reference picture.

Step 2 – Draw in the start of the bodybird drawing step 2

In this next step, we’ll be drawing in the start of the bird’s body. For the bird’s chest, you can use three slightly curved lines extending down from the bottom of the beak to form the chest.

You can see how this should look for your own bird drawing by referring to the helpful reference picture.

Once you have the chest drawn in, you can draw in the back of the bird using another curved line.

Step 3 – Next, draw in the bird’s tailbird drawing step 3

For step 3, we will be drawing in a nice tail for your bird drawing! The tail will be made up of a combination of straight and curved lines connecting with each other.

For this step, I would highly recommend looking very closely at the picture to see how all of the lines should look and connect with each other.

Step 4 – Now draw in the legs and beakbird drawing step 4

Your bird drawing is really starting to come together at this point, so now you’ll be adding in some little legs and the rest of the beak!

Let’s start with the beak first. To finish it off, simply draw a line down the center of it, and then close it off with a curved line.

Now, we’ll work on adding the legs. You can draw two lines close together to form one of the thin legs, and then repeat this for the other leg.

Lastly, you can draw in some curved toes and the back of the feet with some smaller lines.

Step 5 – Next you will be adding the eyes and body detailsbird drawing step 5

In step 5 of this guide on how to draw a bird, we will be adding in the eye and some feather details. For the eye, you can use a few small circles within one another as they appear in the image.

If that isn’t working for you, you could also use a solid black dot or a circle with a small dot inside of it.

Now you can draw in some feather details using a combination of more small, wavy lines and straight ones.

This is another step where I would look very closely to the reference image for guidance on your first attempt.

As long as you follow the guide and take it slow, I know you will manage this stage of your bird drawing perfectly!

Step 6 – Add in the wing and tail detailsbird drawing step 6

You’ve very nearly finished your bird drawing at this point! For step number 6, we will be adding some lines for detail to the wings and tail.

For this step, you don’t really need to follow the reference image exactly and can add in these lines in a way that looks good to you. These lines are to create a feathery look for these parts of the bird.

Step 7 – Now draw in the final detailsbird drawing step 7

You set out on this guide with a mission: to learn how to draw a bird. You’re about to accomplish that mission with these next steps!

For this step, you’ll be adding in more lines to the chest and tail as you can see in the image. Finally, you can draw in lots of little lines into the bird’s legs for a stripy look.

Step 8 – Finish off with some colorbird drawing step 8

With all of the drawing complete, you’re almost done! There’s just one last step, however, and that’s to add in some beautiful colors!

We have shown one way you could do it in this image, but for this one you should let your creativity flow and use your favorite beautiful colors!

You could also incorporate some lovely art mediums like watercolors for a softer look or acrylic paints for a more vibrant look. We can’t wait to see what you choose for your beautiful bird drawing!

Do this to take your bird drawing to the next level

Take flight with more drawing fun as we show you how to take this drawing to the next level.

There are so many different species of birds, and they can range from small hummingbirds or giant ostriches!

This bird sketch shows a smaller one, but you could easily make it a more specific species by changing just a few details.

By changing just the beak, feathers and wing shapes, you could easily turn it into any species you like. What are some favorite types of birds that you could change this one into?

Another way to make this drawing even better would be to add a background. You could draw the bird sitting on a branch outside, or it could be on a perch in a birdcage for a few ideas.

You can really get creative with the background settings that you can go for, and there are no wrong ways to go about it. What are some fun settings you could put this bird into?

Birds can be brilliantly colorful, and you can use some wonderful colors for this drawing of a bird.

Whether you want to use bright and vibrant reds and blues or keep it a bit more subtle with browns and yellows, you can create a wonderful look for this bird.

You can also change up the art tools and mediums that you use and combine them to create different textures and effects.

Maybe you could use some paints and colored pens in order to create some color contrasts.

We tried to make it so that this easy to draw bird would leave some room for your own ideas, and you can add some that are small yet effective.

For example, a bird’s feathers have some texture to them, so you could take a thin-tipped pen and draw some of this feather detail.

Then, if you drew a background then you could add some textures and minor details to those areas as well. These kinds of details can make a big difference even when they’re small!

Your Bird Drawing is Complete!

Your bird drawing is now complete, and we truly hope that this guide on how to draw a bird was helpful and fun for you to use!

It may have seemed like an intimidating task at first, but when breaking it down into the steps in this guide you’ll be drawing birds with ease in no time.

You could even use this guide to add in details or characteristics from some of your favorite birds for some variations!

Along with your color and art medium choices, you have a lot of room to personalize your bird drawing. The only limit is your imagination!

Once your bird drawing is finished and colored in, we really hope that you’ll share it to our Facebook and Pinterest pages for us to admire!

We really can’t wait to see your beautifully drawn and colored bird pictures, and we always love to see your incredible creativity and art skills on display.

Here Is A Cute Bird Drawing To Inspire You!cartoon bird drawing

This cute bird drawing for kids that was created by our artist Amanda serves as great inspiration for your own drawing. There are many challenges in creating a drawing, so this will hopefully help you.

The bird is drawn in a simple style, but she has still included some feather details to make it a bit more realistic.

Amanda also didn’t focus on just the bird, as she also drew some simple background details.

These leaves and plants in the background would also be great for adding some natural colors like green as well.

If you want to expand the background with your own details and ideas, then feel free to do that!

You could also remove some from your cute bird sketch if you want the focus purely on the bird itself. How will you finish off your version?how to draw a bird in 8 easy steps

how to draw fox image

How to Draw A Fox – A Step by Step Guide

how to draw baseball image

How to Draw a Baseball – Step by Step Guide