Common Loon Craft

The common loon is a beautiful and distinctive bird that lives primarily on lakes in the northern US and Canada. An expert diver, 80% of its diet is fish. The loon is the state bird of Minnesota (and the provincial bird of Ontario, Canada) and is also found in abundance in Wisconsin, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Alaska. Make a loon of your own by following this easy tutorial. Affiliate links below. 

Common Loon Craft

Materials: 

• cardstock (black, two shades of blue)
• scissors
• colored pencils
• white Posca pen
• craft glue

Steps: 

Cut out the basic shape of the loon from black cardstock. Draw your own on scratch paper first or print my shape below in the correct size to use as a template. 

Shade the loon's beak with a grey colored pencil. Use a black colored pencil to add a line to define the upper and bottom mandible. 

Color the eye orange, then add a black pupil in the center. Use an extra-fine Posca marker to add a white catchlight at the top of the eye. 

Draw a series of vertical lines along the throat and the back of the neck to make the distinctive bands. 

Use a Posca pen to make the rest of the markings on the loon: white hatch marks on its breast, curved white lines on its shoulders, and blocks of white on the wing that are bigger at the top and center than lower and on the sides. Finally, use the grey colored pencil to define the tail feathers. 

The underside of the loon is white like its chest, but I didn't bother coloring it since I knew it would be covered by the water. Also, I trimmed the loon to give it a more rounded bottom. Here's my finished loon. 

Cut three (or more) strips of cardstock to make the lake water. You want them to be a little wavy. Glue one piece to your background paper, then glue the loon on top of that. Glue the next strip so that it covers the underside of the loon, then glue the final strip over that. 

I'm glad to have made this project and learned more about this super cool bird!