how to draw a bird head

Today we are going to be learning how to draw a bird step by step. Drawing a bird is actually deceptively easy, and this has been one of my favorite tutorials to make!

For this tutorial, I have chosen a very typical-looking bird. I did this because every bird is built from the same basic shapes. Learning how to draw a very ordinary bird will give you the understanding of how to expand on that basic template, and draw any other bird you want.

Let's get started!

What you'll need:

HB (#2) Pencil, 4B pencil

Eraser

Drawing paper

Drawing surface

Step 1

To start with, we need to draw a simple oval that sits on a slight diagonal. This oval will become your bird's body.

Step 2

Touching the top of the first oval you drew, make another smaller oval that will be the head of your bird. A good rule of thumb to remember is that most bird's heads are about 1/3 the size of their body.

Step 3

At the other end of the bird, we need to make the tail. Draw a long triangle shape that is narrow at the bird's body, and widens at the end. This triangle is about as long as the oval of the bird's body.

Step 4

Add a small triangle on the center of the bird's head to form its beak. Also, as shown in the image on the left, connect the bird's head to it's body by drawing two curved lines between the two ovals.

Step 5

As you can see, I have jumped a little further ahead in this step than the rest.

Draw a slightly curved triangle on the side of the bird that faces you. This will become the bird's wing, and should be about 1/2 the width of it's body. Make another small triangle that peeks out from behind the other side of the bird to suggest the other wing.

This bird is grasping a branch, so I have drawn two twig-thin legs with four toes on each foot. You can easily draw your bird standing on the ground by making their legs more vertical, and their toes pointing straight out.

Step 6

At this point you basically have your whole bird drawn. All that is required in this step is for you to erase your original shapes, leaving only the bird's outline.

I also added a few lines running down the tail to suggest feathers.

Step 7

The last step in drawing your bird is to add the finishing touches. Just like on the tail, I added a few lines that run across the wings to give the look of feathers. Unless you are going for a hyper-realistic look, you don't need to draw each feather individually. The key is to sporadically draw a few lines all over the bird's body to suggest it is covered in feathers.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to draw a bird with me. If you did, be sure to check out the rest of our tutorials!

More Learning!

Take a look at this video tutorial I made on how to draw a bird, if you would like to see the step by step process in action!