More Nests: Northern Mockingbird, Western Meadowlark, and Baltimore Oriole

I liked the American Robin nest craft so much I made three more! To make your own, follow the directions for the robin nest, with the following small modifications. 

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You will need a 13/16" template for the eggs of the Northern Mockingbird. Paint them a very pale greenish to bluish grey. When the paint is dry, use a stiff brush to pounce a bit of cinnamon colored paint on the eggs. The blotches should be very light at the pointy end and heavier on the rounded end.  

The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. 

 

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You will need a 1-3/16" template for the eggs of the Western Meadowlark. Paint them a creamy off-white. When the paint is dry, put brown paint on a stiff brush, then run your thumb across the bristles to splatter the brown paint onto the eggs. (Do this somewhere that brown paint splatters won't matter.) The splatters should be a bit heavier toward the rounded end. 

The Western Meadowlark is the state bird of Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. 

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You will need a 5/8" template for the eggs of the Baltimore Oriole. Paint the eggs a very pale grey. When the paint is dry, use a sharp brown colored pencil to draw squiggles onto the eggs as shown. The squiggly lines are more concentrated toward the rounded end. 

The Baltimore Oriole is the state bird of Maryland. 

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While doing my research on state birds, I came across an awesome shop that sells State Pride t-shirts that feature birds (affiliate link). That link goes to my state bird, the California Quail. I chose random states for each of the four birds' nests I made to feature below; if you don't see your state, follow this link to check yours out!

   

American Robin Nest with Eggs

With Easter approaching, a lot of us will be dyeing eggs with into every color of the rainbow. It's a tradition I really enjoy. But as pretty as the dyed eggs are, I'm fascinated by the naturally occurring colors of birds' eggs. The American robin lays eggs so beautiful that we've named the a color after them: robin's egg blue. Today's craft is all about these gorgeous eggs. Affiliate links below. 

American Robin Nest with Eggs

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• Koi watercolors (or robin's egg blue watercolor pencil)
• scissors
• Spanish moss* 
• cardstock (black and white)
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint a 4" square of watercolor paper robin's egg blue, using either paints or watercolor pencils. While the paint dries, cut a square of scratch paper just over 1". Fold it in half, then draw the curve of an egg along the folded side. Cut along the line and unfold the paper to reveal an egg template that is a little bigger than a quarter. (Robins' eggs are 1.1-1.2" long and weigh about the same as a quarter). 

Trace the template four times on the painted paper, then cut out the eggs. 

Take a handful of Spanish moss and form it into a bowl-shaped nest approximately 6" in diameter. Glue the nest to a square of black cardstock. Arrange 3 eggs in the nest, then glue them in place. 

Write AMERICAN ROBIN on a strip of white cardstock, then glue it to the black cardstock below the nest. Glue the final egg to the label. 

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If these were real robin eggs, they'd hatch in about 2 weeks and the baby birds would leave the nest about 2.5 weeks after hatching. Your craft won't change though - sorry about that!

Robins are common throughout the contiguous 48 states, so this is a good craft no matter where you live. But if you happen to be in Connecticut, Michigan, or Wisconsin, this is a particularly excellent project since your states have named the American Robin as the state bird. Enjoy!

* Neither Spanish nor moss! But plentiful in Louisiana. 

N is for Nest

I have a post-it note beside my desk with the letters J, K, N, U, X, and Y on it. Those are the letters that are still missing from my list of Children's Crafts from A-Z. Trevor and I are determined to craft our way through the remaining letters as soon as possible. In the past few weeks, we've knocked Q (Quail) and V (Volcano) off the list. Once I finish this post, we'll scratch N off the list. N is for Nest! Affiliate links below. 

Paper Plate Nest

Supplies: 

• small paper plate (cake size)
• brown paint 
• shredded basket filler
• cotton balls
• chalk / soft pastels
• googly eyes
• crayon 
• cardstock or construction paper 
• scissors
• glue

We started by cutting a paper plate in half. Each of us painted our half with various shades of brown to look like a nest. (Our plate started out blue.) Here's how my nest looked when the paint was dry.

To give the nest texture, we glued on some of the paper bits that came in a gift basket we received.

We kept going until our nests were well-covered.

The next step was adding cotton ball birds. We rubbed some chalk on cotton balls, then added googly eyes and little paper beaks. We tucked the birds behind the nest. Here's mine:

Trevor chose to make two pink chicks and one blue egg that hadn't hatched yet.

The final step was making a background. We started with light blue for the background. We cut brown cardstock to make a tree trunk and branch, then used a crayon to give it a more realistic tree texture. We cut out green leaves to attach to the branches. Trevor left his leaves flat, while I bent mine to give them texture. Finally, we glued the nest and birds in place.

Here's Trevor's artwork. Mine is at the top of the post.

Five letters to go!