Winter Birds Craft for Preschoolers – CD Blue Jay and Cardinal

Here’s an easy winter birds craft for preschoolers and toddlers.  We’ve used some old cds to make a blue jay and a cardinal.  This is a great activity craft for a preschool winter bird unit or for a child who’s been studying the birds at the bird feeder this winter.

Older kids and adults will love our painted cardboard bird craft.

I love using old cds for crafting because they’re free, and you can turn them into just about anything! They’re particulary good for making bird crafts with.  Add a few feathers, googly eyes and a beak to a CD, and you instantly have a pudgy, adorable bird.

We made our CD blue jay and cardinal as Christmas tree ornaments but of course, they’re perfect for a January or February craft because that’s when these vibrant birds are most noticeable in our yards.  Their colours stand out so vividly against the white snow at this time of year.

We’re so fortunate to see the blue jays flying from tree to tree every day here in our yard.  And several times a week, the neighbourhood cardinal stops by to perch on our fence.  They are both such beautiful species’ of birds.

To make our CD winter birds craft, you’ll need:

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• old cds or dvds
• acrylic craft paint in various shades of red and blue
• googly eyes
• yellow craft foam or card stock
• red and blue craft feathers
• paint brush
• glue
• fishing line or metallic thread for hanging

Making our birds:

We started by painting our cds.

Almost every craft we do here starts with paint.  Even if the project will be eventually covered up with tissue paper or tin foil or whatever material we’re working with, I love to start the hooligans off with paint because kids LOVE painting.

Even when we’re working with just one colour (blue for the blue jay, and red for the cardinal),  I usually set out several shades of each colour so the kids can experiment with colour mixing and blending.

For the blue jay, I set out a plastic paint pallet containing navy blue, royal blue, and baby blue. For the cardinal, the pallet held shades of burgundy and bright red.

When the cds were painted, I gave them a blast with the hair dryer.  My regular readers are probably tired of hearing that, but some of you might not know about this trick.  A hair dryer is a great way to dry paint or glue quickly when you’re crafting with kids!  I keep a spare hair dryer in the craft room for just this purpose.

With the paint dry, I looped some metallic thread through the center of the CD so we’d be able to hang up our birds when they were finished.

Next, we added the beaks and googly eyes.

Then, to finish,  we flipped our cds over, and glued craft feathers to the backs of the cds.  We used two types of craft feathers – some were long and thin, and some were short and fluffy.

Don’t you love how a pair of googly eyes instantly brings a craft to life?

We hung ours on the Christmas tree initially, but now, with the holidays over, we’ll need to find a new place for our birds to roost.

I’m thinking they’ll add a nice pop of colour to a window during these bleak winter months.

If you liked our CD Winter Birds, you may also enjoy:

25 Bird Crafts for Kids

10 Terrific Things to Make with CDs

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