Let macaws inspire some fun crafts.
Macaws are beautiful birds that inspire us with their colorful feathers and ability to talk. This species of long-tailed parrots comes in striking colors. There's the blue and yellow macaw, the red-shouldered macaw, the yellow collared macaw and the larger, scarlet macaw. Making a few crafts that look like macaws can entertain children indoors when it's too rainy to play outside or can be a fun activity at a birthday party. With just a few simple supplies, children can create macaw art, rattles or toys.
Make Feather Art
Combine coloring with feathers. Print a coloring book image of a macaw. One such image can be found online for free. (See resources below.) Let the kids color the background and the macaw's beak and feet. Then glue-mount the printed page onto something sturdier, like cardboard. Next, have the kids glue on colorful feathers to cover the bird. Now they have a work of feather art to hang and display.
Mexican Macaw Rattle
Make a traditional Mexican toy of a macaw head rattle. For this, you'll need an empty toilet-paper roll, a wooden craft stick, masking tape, either dried beans or unpopped popcorn, some yellow construction paper, glue, scissors, colored markers and a couple of colorful feathers.
With masking tape, seal one end of the toilet-paper roll. Tape the wooden craft stick to the other end. Add in the beans or popcorn for the rattle and seal them inside with more masking tape. Now, decorate the toilet roll to look like a macaw. Use the yellow construction paper to make a beak that you can glue on. Draw on eyes and color the roll like a macaw's head. Glue a few feathers to stand up along the top for the traditional look of the rattle.
Make a Styrofoam Macaw
This craft will take more skill. Take a block of Styrofoam and carve it into the shape of a macaw. Depending on the kids' ages, this step may need to be performed by an adult. Once the Styrofoam is roughly the shape of a bird, let the kids glue feathers all over it. Paint the beak yellow and paint on eyes. Insert pipe cleaners to make feet that can hook over the top of a chair so your Styrofoam macaw can sit on a perch.
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