Squawk! This Cardboard Tube Parrot Craft is a fabulous Summer bird craft for kids. The bright colours get me thinking of tropical jungles and long lazy Summer days. Lush!
These colourful homemade parrots are super easy to make and give kids lots of opportunities to develop their fine motor scissor skills. Why not make a whole flock of homemade parrots to turn your home or garden into a tropical paradise?
Cardboard Tube Parrot Craft Tutorial
Every year I look forward to the longer days and free time that the Summer holidays give us. We always take a journey to a zoo or wildlife park and the children never tire of seeing and learning about all of the amazing animals. It’s always fun to follow up these family days out with some animal crafts.
Popular with our readers are roaringly good Handprint Lion Masks, super fun Mix ‘N’ Match Articulated Snakes and this totally adorable Jungle Animal Play Set.
The jungle parrots are always fantastic to see in the flesh. I still remember the first time my children saw them and how amazed they were by how big and colourful they were. Here in the UK most of the birds we see are tiny and brown!
This cardboard tube parrot craft captures jungle parrots vibrant colours and gives kids the opportunity to practise their scissor skills making some gorgeous long tail feathers and head plumes.
This parrot craft is lovely on it’s own or you can attach a stick to make parrot puppets or even string them up with a loop of thread if you want to hang them from the ceiling.
Supplies To Make Colourful Jungle Parrots
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- Cardboard Tubes
- Acrylic Paint US / UK
- Coloured Paper US / UK
- Pinking Shears US / UK
- Googly Eyes US / UK
- Glue
- Sticky Tape
- Stapler
How To Make Cardboard Tube Parrots
1- Start by painting your cardboard tubes. We love to use acrylic paint because it covers so well and gives such a good dense colour. Perfect for jungle parrots!
2- Choose the coloured paper you want to use to make your parrot’s tail feathers. We choose three colours for each parrot craft.
3- Using your zig-zag pinking shears cut your coloured paper into strips approximately 1 inch x 12 inch (2cm x 30cm) and taper one end.
4- Starting at the tapered end, lightly roll your paper strips up around a pen or similar to give them a curl.
5- To give the parrot’s tail feathers texture, cut into the middle of your paper strip diagonally all along the length. (Do not cut all the way through!)
6- Then repeat along the other side starting and finishing at the mid point between two cuts on the opposite side.
7- Fan the tail feathers out and staple or glue the flat ends together.
8- Glue or tape the parrot’s tail into the inside of your painted cardboard tube.
9- To make the parrot craft’s head plume repeat steps 3 – 7 using short paper strips. Ours were about 2-3 inches.
10 – glue the parrot craft’s head plumage into place and add the rest of its features. We used googly eyes and cut some simple feet and a beak from yellow paper.
Squawk Who’s a pretty Polly?! This parrot craft is so fun! Great for decorating for Summer parties or Talk Like A Pirate Day! I just love how cute they are. They look fab and you can even turn them into parrot puppets if you glue on a stick for holding, or how about adding a hanging thread to suspend them from the ceiling?
More Fun Jungle Crafts From Our Friends:
Super Fun Twirling Parrots
- Adorable CD & Button Turtles
- Gorgeous Magazine Mosaic Tigers
- Wonderful Textured Elephants
- Cute Cardboard Tube Giraffes
More Fun Summer Crafts For Kids:
