Tag Archives: Birds

Tweet tweet tweet! Goes the robin

Life size (or near life size) birds have long been a popular subject matter for LEGO creations. While many previous birds have featured some pretty cool parts usage, KitKat1414 uses a pretty innovative technique for this Robin’s face. It’s just one piece, but a red minifigure torso managed to accomplish so many different things.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the arm holes as eyes. The size is just perfect. Second, you’ll see the neck as the bird’s beak. Sure it’s round where a real beak should be conical, but it very clearly represents and communicates that piece of the bird’s anatomy. Finally, the not to be overlooked, subtle design feature the torso lends to this bird is the angle it gives the face. I can’t think of any other single LEGO piece, or even pair of pieces that could accomplish as much as this one, incredibly common, often overlooked element does.

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I’d give my left arm for houses like these

Ordinarily at The Brothers Brick, we writers try not to re-use the title a builder gives to a build as the title for our article; however, sometimes it is just too perfect, and I cannot resist. Now, in this case, it is also true that I wrote the title for the build, since I built it. And when the centerpiece of the build is armless LEGO minifigure torsos, it is in fact true that three minifigures gave both their left and right arms for these houses. The build might be simple, with an uncomplicated fence and vegetation, but combined together it looks pleasant, a delightful little home for birds. And those books do an excellent job keeping out the rain.

I built this for the Iron Forge building competition, where anyone can compete to get a shot at dethroning one of the reigning Iron Builders. There’s still time to get some entries in if you fancy wearing an iron crown yourself!

A world of 3.18mm bars

Any regular reader of the Brothers Brick knows, LEGO fans can do some pretty amazing things with the wide variety of different LEGO pieces out there. Those endless possibilities include limiting yourself to a smaller palette of parts and colours, like Milan Sekiz has done with his series of Stick Statue creations.

Keep reading to see the rest of these simple yet expressive models

Pretty as a picture of a picture

It takes a talented builder to take a very specialized LEGO part, like a train switch, and turn it into something totally different. Of course, we all know Jonas Kramm is a talented builder, so it should come as no surprise that he managed to make a train switch into a painting of a peacock. It is unquestionably the best peacock head I have ever seen done in LEGO form, and perhaps the best bird head, too. The bumps on the switch make perfect nostrils, and it also works well as the eyes on the tail. But Jonas did not stop there: he also used the part for the lantern flame, and the drawer pulls. Not to mention the Jurassic World gyrosphere for the lantern glass and the green snake for paint. It’s a great composition of a great composition, for sure!

Like Jonas’ builds? Then check out some more. And don’t miss the Iron Builder action, where the train switch is the seed part.

A trio of South American birds [Instructions]

You don’t have to be a birdwatcher to appreciate this collection of South American birds by Luis Peña. Each South American bird is built from between 35-55 LEGO pieces and would look great on your display shelf, desk, or bookshelf.

First is the Black-necked swan, which swims on a small stand of water.

Check out more instructions from Luis

What are birds? We just don’t know.

Birds are an enigma, and this LEGO one by DOGOD Brick Design is no exception. Well, okay, we do know it’s a Taiwan blue magpie, the so-called “long tailed mountain lady.” And we can see that there’s some really nice naturalistic shaping happening. A combination of ball joints, hinges, and curved slopes allow for the wings to curve gracefully around the body. And the yellow 1×1 round plates make for a suitably mysterious (or just bird-brained) expression.

But beyond that? Total mystery.

If you want to try and figure out more about our brick-built avian friends, then you could always dig deeper into our archive of LEGO birds. Who knows what you might discover?

We met in passing

The passenger pigeon went extinct in 1914, the victim of deforestation and overhunting. Matt Goldberg pays tribute to this lost species with a beautiful LEGO recreation. This build is a complex mix of Technic, Bionicle, and System parts, with overlapping panels recreating organic curves. Minifigure arms help shape the head, and small radar dishes and 1×1 round plates give this bird just the right mournful eye line. I also like the inclusion of some props to give some context to things. The perch may be a simple build, but the tan creates a nice color contrast for the plumage. It’s a somber image, but a lovely one.

Birds are a popular subject for LEGO builders. For more avian goodness, check out some other featured models.

Like a bird on the wing

Builder Aiden.builds pulls plenty of feathers to create this beautiful LEGO model of a magpie in flight. I must admit to really loving LEGO bird models, especially seeing how builders treat the wings. This magpie has a beautiful wingspan using one of my favorite pieces, Shaft Ø3.2 Wing 9M inserted in a Bad Robot arm and clipped on to a flexi tube (Outercable 160Mm). The result is a lovely organic shape using a variety of thoughtful colors. The body is equally well done using quite a few different Technic fairings and the beak and eye are a perfect finisher.

Silent and deadly

Owls are fascinating creatures. You may be disappointed to find that they are not the wisest of all animals, as suggested in much of western pop-culture. (Or even birds for that matter.) But they have several extraordinary traits. For one, they have a special row of comb-like feathers on the edge of their wings that help provide silent flight. They also have superb binocular and night vision, with a neck that can turn 270 degrees, giving a much wider field. They also have “facial discs” like this LEGO model built by Eero Okkonen. The rounded collection of feathers on their faces aren’t for show. They, combined with asymmetric ears (a pair of off-set and different-sized holes on either side of their head), allow owls to determine exact positioning of their prey.

Although this build is, of course, for show, I admire the effort Eero puts into giving his creations realism. Using the dishes and chain links to decorate his Great Grey Owl’s face, along with that classic stern expression, was an excellent choice!

While you’re here, you should take a look at more of Eero’s excellent work. And for those birders out there, we have plenty of builds of the avian variety in our archives.

A pretty pair of parakeets

Ah, love is in the air! In India, it’s the tail end of the breeding season for the ring-necked parakeets. These sweet birds are busy raising this year’s youngsters, and looking good while doing it! Leave it to Felix Jaensch to immortalize a pair in LEGO. Many times over, we’ve seen gorgeous animals from Felix, but they continue to impress us. For me, I think I’m most appreciative of the fact that he can show us the same bird in twenty different poses, and they’ll all look great. The realism is exceptional.

While you’re here, I definitely recommend taking a look at Felix’s other animals. We’ve featured many of his creations, but in the spirit of this avian duo, how about some birds? To list a few, check out a magpie, a blue and gold macaw, a kestrel, and even another parrot with a baby (plus a toucan for good measure).

This hummingbird is more than the sum of its nice parts usage

In the LEGO community, nice parts usage (or NPU) is something many builders strive to achieve. Using parts in an interesting way never fails to garner notice and compliments. Often these types of techniques are scattered throughout the model, but in the case of this hummingbird, builder Jaap Bijl gives us a figure that consists almost entirely of NPU. So, where does one begin?

The tree branch and leaves may be common, but the whips for vines and the small minifigure hammers for the flower stamens take us into unusual territory. The minifigure spanner used for the feet and the clever eye and beak area are stand outs. The wings, however, are a thing of beauty. They’re a terrific combo of flexible tubes, small wrenches and a variety of blue Technic pins and 1×1 round plates to create the wing feathers. The lavender grass pieces and purple antennae make for a nice finisher as tail feathers. They body and silhouette of the bird are quite nice as well and really bring the entire model together as a cohesive whole.

The early bird gets the worm

In the northern United States, at least, one of the first signs of spring is when the robins return. It is a day much beloved, a turning point when the cold and snow is gone and flowers are about to bloom. Of course, in many places the robins never actually leave, and snow never really comes, so it is less exciting, but I know as a kid growing up in Minnesota I loved to see that first robin. So, since it is spring where I live, and needing an idea for a contest entry, I (Benjamin Stenlund) built a robin coming back to the newly-hatched chicks in her nest. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, with the adult bird poised in mid-air with her flight feathers extended, feet ready to grasp the edge of the nest; and I think the nest itself turned out well, too.

The adult robin was fun to make, even if it is awful fiddling with those wings; they stay together just fine unless you jostle them, but moving the model from my building table to my photography station required some rebuilding. A round plate with bar built into her tail fits into a dinosaur neck twig to hold her in the air, just off the nest. The hardest part was the face and trying different solutions for the beak; I wanted to be able to put a worm in her mouth, but it would not look right with the parts I had, so I left it out and just used the spike. Lots of flex tubing went into the nest, but it was worth it for the un-LEGOy, organic shape of it. And when I ran out of flex tube, I used oars and blunderbusses and a variety of spikes and whips. To maximize the spring feeling, I added some flowers; perhaps cherry blossoms, maybe apple, or whatever pink flower you like to see on trees! I know it makes me want to get out of the basement where I build and go take a walk, at least.

Like bird builds? Here’s a sparrow and an owl for your viewing pleasure.

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