Adaptation is the word which describes how certain parts of an animal help it survive in its habitat (home). For example, if it were 20 degrees outside (brr!), you could adapt to it by putting on a coat. Many birds have been able to do something similar. A flamingo, for instance, lives near the water and eats small animals and plants in it. To help it out, it developed long legs to wade into the water without getting wet; a long neck to bend down and slurp up some water; and an oddly shaped beak to sift food from it.

Below, you'll get your own chance to make a bird - adaptable to even the strangest of habitats. Artist Andrew Costanzo designed a whole bunch of heads, feet, beaks, and more for you to mix-and-match, any way you'd like! Chances are, no one will have ever seen anything like it!



What You'll Need:
  • 8-1/2" x 11" paper or cardstock
  • crayons, markers, or colored pencils
  • scissors

  • glue or tape



How You Do It:
  1. Click on the files below and print out each of them. You'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to do this.










  2. Color in your bird parts however you want! You can use lots of colors or just a few. And polka-dots and stripes are okay, too.


  3. Cut out as many pieces as you want. Just make sure you have one head, one beak, one tail, one pair of feet, and a body.


  4. Now for the fun part - mix and match them however you want. You can have webbed feet, a long neck, and a huge tail. It may look silly, but it's all up to you.


  5. Finally, glue all the parts to the body (or in the case of the beak, the head).
    6. If you want, you can even make a background on a separate sheet of paper for your bird. Just remember - are the bird's parts right for it's environment?