Draw an American Robin: directions for children

Drawing of an American Robin

Start with a pencil in hand, and lightly sketch the lines, so if you want to change them they're easy to erase.

1. Draw a circle for the Robin's body.

2. Draw a smaller circle on top of the first circle for the head.

3. Draw a long thin triangle off the back bottom of the body circle. This long triangle will be the tail.

4. Draw a line from the back of the head to halfway down the tail. This will be the top of the wing.

5. To finish the wing, make a soft half circle under the straight line from the bottom of the head to the tip of the wing.

6. Make another soft half circle at the bottom front of the body to mark off the reddish orange of the tummy.

7. Add legs with slanting lines with three claws.

8. Put a beak on the front of the head.

9.For the eye, draw an oval with a smaller circle inside. The oval will mark the white around the eye, and the circle will be the Robin's brown eye.

10. Outline the Robin with non-toxic colored markers. Use yellow for the beak, black for the head and the oval around the eye, and brown to color in the eye ball. Keep outlining the body and wings in gray, the tummy in orange, and the legs and feet in black.

11. Erase all pencil lines. You should be able to erase them even through the marker.

12. Color in with crayons. I used yellow for the beak, and black for the head. For the body and wings, I first used gray, and then brown, and finished the tips of the feathers with black lines. The tummy I first colored with orange-red, and then went over it with orange.

There's your finished Robin. Also check out the sounds Robins make at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds. They've got 3 different songs and 6 different calls. I never knew, and I've grown up admiring these birds. All About Birds also has some good videos. There's one of a mother and her babies I think is especially cute.