It's Draw a Bird Day!

April 8, 2023 1:41 PM

Today is Draw a Bird Day! In 1943, a 7 year old girl was visiting her wounded uncle in the hospital. Trying to cheer him up, she asked him to draw her a bird - which, she noted, was not very good, but her laughter and honesty cheered him up, and the other wounded soldiers on the ward began drawing birds when she visited. Draw a Bird Day is a lovely occasion to celebrate the joys of the birds all around us ... as is the Cornell Wall of Birds.

In further celebration, please enjoy a virtual visit to the Cornell Wall of Birds - a wonderful project, with a lovely book: artist Jane Kim created a vast mural featuring 270 species from around the world for the Cornell Lab's visitor center.

About the Wall of Birds at the Cornell Lab

A Virtual Visit to the Wall of Birds

NPR interview with artist Jane Kim

The Wall of Birds book described at Ink Dwell, Kim's studio

If you want instructions, you can follow a tutorial to draw a simple bird, or watch some great lessons from the wonderful artist and educator David Sibley.

But the best way to celebrate Draw a Bird Day is to just go ahead and draw a bird.

Happy Draw a Bird Day!

posted by kristi (8 comments total)

I am planning to draw at least one bird today, and if I get a chance, I will post a link in this thread - I hope you all will, too, if you feel like it! (I did a very inexpert 90-second chickadee last night, so that's my backup bird.)

Also: How is it possible this has not been a FPP before?
posted by kristi at 1:43 PM on April 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

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posted by indexy at 2:10 PM on April 8, 2023 [20 favorites]

Previously: welcome, to the bird museum “Last September, Louie Zong (@everydaylouie) put out a Twitter call to action. Using his modest social media clout in possibly the only way one should, he convinced thousands of followers to email him rough pictures of birds for The Bird Museum – an “ever-changing selection of bad, crowdsourced bird art”. Prospective pieces didn’t have to be good – in fact, Zong felt it better they weren’t.”

It's a first person video game where you explore a museum of bird art. Video in the link.
posted by AlSweigart at 3:04 PM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love the concept and I am not signing up for Facebook to post officially so here is a crow on masto
posted by cortex at 4:47 PM on April 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

I love your excellent crow, cortex, and indexy, I love your asciibird!

Here are mine, including my rather owly-looking chickadee from yesterday, a 15-second long-tail thing, and a Steller's jay: https//imgur.com/a/Mo6koRQ .

Yay birds! Cheers to everyone who drew a bird today!
posted by kristi at 8:00 PM on April 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

Cortex, your Mastodon crow rawks!
posted by Oyéah at 8:54 PM on April 8, 2023

Many years ago my son was tasked, for a heraldic school project, to draw "an eagle seizing a snake in its talons" - like the Mexican state flag or similar . . . The result was a little less fierce.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:51 AM on April 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

No post on this topic would be complete without the classic

How to draw an owl
posted by lalochezia at 3:43 AM on April 9, 2023 [5 favorites]