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It’s time to pick up a colored pencil, marker, paintbrush or just your favorite pen or pencil – it’s Draw-a-Bird Day! This holiday began in 1943 and is celebrated worldwide by artists and non-artists alike – it’s not about talent, skill, or experience, but about the joy of celebrating the simple things in life, like the fun of drawing, coloring, or sketching and sharing it with others. You might draw your favorite species, a bird you hope to see, your latest lifer, a scene from your backyard feeders, or even an imaginary bird. Whether you doodle in a margin with a nub of a No. 2 pencil or break out the professional supplies and easel, just enjoy bringing the feathers to life through your fingers!

Need some inspiration? These resources can help…

• How to Draw Birds
  This quirky guide offers fast and easy steps for drawing fun cartoon birds of different species and personalities. Suitable for children and adults, this is a great option for simple drawings to let your crazy creativity soar, and is great for making your own fun bird comics or whimsical notes for cards, signs or any drawing occasion.
• How to Draw Birds
  This slightly more advanced, full-color guide focuses on basic drawing techniques for realistic birds in realistic poses. A variety of bird species are included to sharpen drawing skills, including a flamingo, eagle, woodpecker, parrot, peacock, sparrow, crane and more. The techniques can then be applied to many more bird species.
• The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
  A more advanced book for aspiring artists or art students, this guide teaches techniques for proportion, shading and greater detail than more basic books. Easy steps can help any artist refine their bird-drawing skills, and natural history trivia included in the book adds richness and realism to the bird-drawing experience.

As you learn to draw birds, you’ll also find your birding skills improve. Drawing forces you to pay greater attention to details such as a bird’s overall shape and proportions, the exact extent of markings, posture, poses, and other subtleties that can help identify a species. You’ll be watching birds more carefully in order to sketch them more accurately, and the more you draw, the more you’ll notice about even the most familiar birds you thought you knew. What better reason to celebrate this holiday, and any day that gives us an excuse to pay more attention to birds!