In this post we’re going to take a look at an impeccable collection of origami birds of all kinds. Excited? Let’s dive in!

We’ll start things off with an adorable little owl sitting in a tree. This little owl has a ton of personality and expression and I really like the lighting in this photo too.

Owl, Designed by Roman Diaz and Folded by Gonzalo

Diagrams available in Drawing Origami Tome 1

Here’s an excellent and unique flamingo design from Mathieu Gueros that really catches the essence of a real-life flamingo. The two of them together here are super cute too.

Flamingos, Designed and Folded by Mathieu Gueros

Instructions not available

Sebastien Limet designed this excellent flock of birds hanging out together on a branch. Each bird is folded from a single square of paper and the branch is folded from a regular old Kite Base.

Vieille Branche (Old Branch), Designed and Folded by Sebastien Limet

Instructions not available

Here are two absolutely gorgeous looking pelicans photographed at the 2015 OrigamiUSA Convention.

Pelicans, Designed and Folded by Hoang Tien Quyet (Photo by Michelle Fung)

Diagrams available in VOG 2: Origami.vn

Next is a similar sort of bird designed by the animal origami master Roman Diaz.

White Heron, Designed and Folded by Roman Diaz

Instructions not available

Here we have an example of something pretty cool. This Atlantic Puffin is folded from two squares of paper that are superimposed on top of each other. You then fold them together as a single sheet of paper but since there are two layers of paper there you have more options for folds and you can get additional colours worked into the design.

The concept is a little hard to grasp but if you check out these diagrams for another model Nicolas Terry designed then you can get a feel for how this technique works.

As far as I know I’ve only ever seen this technique used by Nicolas Terry, no one else which is too bad because it’s a genius idea.

Multilayer Atlantic Puffin, Designed and Folded by Terry Nicolas

Instructions not available

This is an incredible Indian Vulture with tons of detail packed in all folded from a single square of paper.

Indian Vulture, Designed and Folded by Seth Friedman (Photo by Michelle Fung)

Crease pattern available from Seth Friedman’s website

Here’s another really fantastic flamingo design this time with just a hint of colour change to make the beak.

Flamingo, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Crease pattern available from Hiroaki Kobayashi’s Flickr

This peacock design makes fantastic use of a tessellation pattern to form a big beautiful open tail.

Peacock, Designed by Jun Maekawa and Folded by Kevin Hutson

Diagrams available in Genuine Origami

These two parrots are absolutely gorgeous. Both of these are really well folded with some beautiful curves.

Baby Parrots, Designed by Riccardo Foschi and Folded by Andrea Borsa

Instructions not available

Chickens are birds too even if they’re not what you immediately think of. Here’s an excellent one folded from a single square of paper with a fantastic colour change for the head.

Silky Fowl, Designed and Folded by Jaeil Jeong

Instructions not available

This next model is a lot less complex than the previous ones but it has tons of character and looks really great.

Long Tailed Tit, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Crease pattern available from Hiroaki Kobayashi’s Flickr

Here’s a really great little toucan.

Toucan, Designed by Hoang Tien Quyet and Folded by Willie G. Crespo

Diagrams available in the 18th Tanteidan Convention book

When people fold kingfishers there’s two designs that I pretty much always see. That’s why it was exciting to find this new design from Yoshimasa Tsuruta. Diagrams are freely available online so I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t seen anyone else fold this model.

Kingfisher, Designed and Folded by Yoshimasa Tsuruta

Diagrams available from Origamity

This is a pretty popular and famous owl design and this is one of the best folds I’ve ever seen of it. The claws are looking especially awesome.

Blakiston’s Fish Owl, Designed by Katsuta Kyohei and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.

Video instructions available from Mariano Zavala B.’s YouTube channel

Here’s an absolutely gorgeous parent and child bird folded by Kei Watanabe.

Okinawa Rails, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe

Instructions not available

A while ago Satoshi Kamiya designed this Japanese White Eye and it became a super popular model and tons of people have folded it. This is one of the best folds I’ve seen.

Japanese White Eye, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Rokuya

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #153

This is another much less complex model but the shapes and colour changes are awesome and this little bird has a ton of character.

Cardinal, Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson

Diagrams available in the 23rd Tanteidan Convention book

Here’s another fantastic model from Satoshi Kamiya. The whole thing is folded from a single square of paper and as Rui Roda pointed out it’s one of the few designs from Satoshi Kamiya with less than 200 steps.

Splash! Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Rui Roda

Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003

This is another design that has a really great colour change in the design to make it look a lot more like the real life version.

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, Designed by Quentin Trollip and Folded by Andrés

Diagrams available in Works of Quentin Trollip

Hiroaki Kobayashi designed this excellent Shoebill and it almost reminds me of a Chocobo.

Shoebill, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Instructions not available

This model almost looks like a less complex Japanese White Eye. The colour changes here on the eye, underside and feet are awesome.

Flycatcher, Designed by Noboru Miyajima and Folded by Terry Nicolas

Diagrams available in the 23rd Tanteidan Convention book

Here’s another absolutely incredible design by Kei Watanabe. I have no words to describe how awesome this model is.

Osprey, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe

Instructions not available

This baby duck is probably the cutest baby duck (made out of paper) that I’ve ever seen.

Baby Duck, Designed and Folded by Nakamura Kaede (Photo by Michelle Fung)

Instructions not available

Here’s another beautiful parrot design that would definitely not be the same without the colour changes.

Macaw, Designed and Folded by Yuta Katsuzaki

Crease pattern available from Yuta Katsuzaki’s Flickr

Our final model for this post is a rooster but it’s certainly an impressive one. This is all folded from a single sheet of paper and when you use two coloured paper you get those awesome colour changes on the head and feet.

Rooster, Designed by Mineo Shotaro and Folded by Giang Nam

Crease pattern available in Tanteidan Magazine #161

What did you think of all these impeccable origami birds? Let us know in the comments!