20 Realistic Bird Drawing Ideas in Pencil

Welcome to the blog 👋🏼

In this post, I share some easy bird drawing ideas that anyone can try, even a beginner, using a pencil and paper.

Here are some quick tips for drawing birds:

1. Start with the head
2. I like to draw from a book - rather than online images. Check out your local library for inspiration, as ours had lots of bird books
3. The markings make such a difference. Whilst I was drawing some of them, they looked like I'd got them wrong. Adding the markings not only added character and definition but made a big difference in them looking like the bird I was drawing.

A Sparrow

I really enjoyed drawing this one as it's so cute and has a lot of personality.

Bullfinch

Sometimes the whole drawing doesn't need to be realistic. The legs and claws of this bird are just lines, but you don't really notice (well, I don't anyway)

Thrush

I loved adding the markings to this one, as it set it apart from all the others. Plus, they eat slugs, and I am not the biggest fan of slugs 🤢

Reed Bunting

Check out the hairdo on this one!

Wading bird drawing

The eye is the part of this bird that gives it character, and that is achieved by adding a tiny highlight to give the impression of light reflecting.

Woodpecker

I found this one hard to draw as it looks so unusual - I played around with the layout of the paper and actually drew this landscape before rotating.

Sketchy bird drawing

Don't forget that you can do these sketches quickly and lightly. You are not going for photorealism here. I love sketches like this; they give that bird so much character.

Black-Headed Gull

Really enjoyed drawing the webbed feet. As opposed to a lot of the other birds where I spent more time on the head and eyes, the feet of this gull deserved more time.

Blue tit

We have so many Bluetits in our garden and I just love these little birds.

Heron

Although Herons seem a little ominous, they are also incredibly graceful and beautiful to draw.

Garney

These birds seem so cheeky. I think it's their eyes. When you are drawing them, look at how their wings cross over at the end.

Flamingo

This one was too iconic not to draw. The problem with a very well-known bird is that it is easy to feel like you have not done a good enough job, but if you imagine them as an S-shape with a balloon-shaped bottom, you can't go far wrong.

Garden Warbler

This might sound silly to say, but if I were to draw a bird without knowing what type of bird, this is what I would draw. The "birdiest" of all the bird drawings.

Jay Bird

I would have loved to get my watercolours out to give this Jay her real chance to shine, but sadly, I ran out of time.

Kingfisher

I have only been lucky enough to see a Kingfisher a couple of times in my life, and even then, it was just a flash of blue across the river. Even without there colour they are lovely to draw.

Mallard

Quack. That is all.

Owl

When I started drawing Owls, I hadn't realised quite how ghostly they can look. But the heart shape in the centre of their face makes it a lot of fun to draw.

Puffin

The head of the Puffin, including the beak, is so much fun to draw because of the wonderful array of lines.

Robin

Robins are my favourite birds. Their shape is deceptively simple but hard to get right.

Swan

The simple way to draw a swan is to think of their body like a number 2 (the actual number, not the other number two!) Then once you have that shape, the rest quickly falls into place.

Get drawing those birds

Now that you have seen our collection of bird drawings, hopefully, it has given you plenty of ideas about the type of birds you would like to draw.