Make pop-up bird egg cards, featuring a real-life egg and the bird who lays it!
If you were to imagine a bird egg, what picture would you see in your mind?
Chances are, it is a chicken egg, white and ovular. But the world of bird eggs is surprisingly interesting and diverse!
The poster bellow features some unique ones from around the world. The blue eggs of robins and the speckled pink eggs of nuthatches, the big eggs of emus and the tiny eggs of ruby-throated hummingbirds. Aren’t they interesting? Not only are the colours and sizes different, but so are the shapes.
If you’d like to study bird eggs, here is the bird egg activity pack. It includes a poster (above), a memory and matching game of bird mothers and their eggs, information cards about the parenting habits of various birds, and fourteen templates of pop-up bird cards.
But if you would just like to spend a fun hour talking about bird eggs and making a fun pop-up card, we have free printable templates for making two such cards below!
The free printable templates feature the eggs of American robin and Eurasian nuthatch. Here they are closed.
And here they are open!
Wouldn’t they make a nice Easter card?
How to Make Egg Pop-Up Cards
1 – Print the template. It has the egg, the bird, the little pop-up tab, and the bird’s name tag, as well as assembly instructions. Every template comes with the instructions, so that if you use them in a bigger group, each child has them handy.
2 – Cut out the parts.
3 – Fold the egg and the hinge. The egg gets folded in half, so that the coloured sides face outward. All of the dotted lines on the pop-up hinge also get folded, in the same direction, as shown on the card.
4 – Glue the parts together, either with a glue stick, white glue, or hot glue. Hint: The first step in gluing is to establish the position for the pop-up hinge, which can be found easily if the egg and hinge folds are all at 90° angles. Glue the hinge tabs, and place the hinge inside the egg.
5 – Once the hinge is securely in place, glue the bird to it, so that the bird fits entirely inside the egg when closed, and so that the bird is high enough on the hinge to ensure that it opens and closes without binding. Gluing the name tag underneath is optional.
While the free sample includes the American robin and the Eurasian nuthatch, the full pack adds Atlantic puffin, common magpie, common grackle, common loon, emperor penguin, Eurasian nuthatch, ruby-throated hummingbird, and snowy owl.
Since some species (American robin, common grackle, ruby-throated hummingbird, and snowy owl) have sex-specific colour forms – as discussed in our Male vs Female Bird Matching Game – those species have got two templates each.
Here is how the eggs look closed.
And here they are open.
More Bird Activities!
Bird Guess Who Game: In this printable game of bird deduction, each player gets a bird. By asking questions and using the key of twenty four birds, the players attempt to deduce the mystery bird of their opponent.
Bird Bingo: The bird bingo game features 48 species of birds from around the world and 32 bingo cards. With beautiful watercolour illustrations and multiple levels of complexity, it will bring joy to bird enthusiasts of all ages!
Thanks for reading!