Great idea! I like those very much. Blowing in the breeze they just may keep unwanted birds out of the garden., Thanks for the Idea.

Chelcass

Laura, Very nice. I bet they add a bit of color to the tree. I have never worked with pop cans but I was wondering about something. To get away from the gluing, would it work to cut a slit in the body of the bird and slip a set of wings into it. Maybe wrap fishing line around the bird and wings? This would make it two dimensional. Like I said, I have never worked with pop cans so this might not work.

I am saving pop cans right now to make some of the flowers I have seen on here. Maybe I will try a bird or two. Thank you for sharing this idea with us.

Marylee

I was afraid that if I made wings that stick out, they might fly away. As it is, even flat, a few have taken off, but thank goodness, haven't gone far. As far as the gluing goes: I made 1 layer a silhouette of the bird, silver side down, then glued on at least at 3, 4 or 5 pieces in the colors & shapes I wanted, again silver side down. We get huge flocks of green parrots that pass throghu here seasonally so dd#3 asked me to make one of those. He came out kind of cute! - Laura

I love them !!! So colorful :) It's giving me windchime ideas ~~~~~

Love the birds! We get parrots going through often also but they were from a "bust"(illegal to sell them in U.S.)& while the cops were talking to them, 1 guy slipped to back & turned them all loose. They like it here & went from about 10-12 to close to 30. They are so destructive & attacked my bro.s almond tree & tore off limbs & left the yard a mess & almonds were not even near being ripe for picking. I've scared them out of my yard couple of times. Very noisy also. The black & green & red & black birds are my favorite but the cute little blue headed 1 is darling too. Jan

What a good idea. I love the little blue jay one especially.
It would be fun to try them in fruit trees to see if they keep the birds a way.
Kathy

I need some in my garden!
Will have to find some patterns!

Very creative, Laura! I like the robin best but they're all cute and quite realistic.

For patterns, I searched "google images" for "birds"; sometimes I searched for a specific bird, such as 'blue jay' or 'robin'. I looked for the simplest image, printed out 2 copies. one I left whole and used it to make a cardboard pattern for the back layer of the bird. I cut the 2nd bird into pieces so I could rebuild the bird in several different colors. For some birds the back & wing were one piece & the belly another. For others, the wing was a separate piece. I have a pile of scraps from making hundreds of flowers, so I was able to find tiny pieces of yellow or black for eyes & beaks. - Laura

For patterns, I searched "google images" for "birds"; sometimes I searched for a specific bird, such as 'blue jay' or 'robin'. I looked for the simplest image, printed out 2 copies. one I left whole and used it to make a cardboard pattern for the back layer of the bird. I cut the 2nd bird into pieces so I could rebuild the bird in several different colors. For some birds the back & wing were one piece & the belly another. For others, the wing was a separate piece. I have a pile of scraps from making hundreds of flowers, so I was able to find tiny pieces of yellow or black for eyes & beaks. - Laura

Laura - you beat me to it! I was just searching for patterns for birds before I got on GW and saw this :) I found a really good cardinal shape to use. I've been doing butterflies, to use for a windchime. No more recycling aluminum cans for me, just the scraps that are left over.