Parrot Drawing: Easy Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Squawk! Ready to draw the most colorful chatterbox in the bird world? Learning how to draw a parrot gives you the rare treat of using every marker in the box on one animal — red, yellow, blue, green, all officially accurate. We’ll draw a macaw-style parrot perched on a branch, built from an egg, a circle, and one gloriously long tail. 🦜

Parrots follow the same friendly formula as every bird — body, head, beak, tail — so if you’ve done our easy bird drawing for beginners, this will feel like a colorful upgrade. Let’s get this show-off onto the page.

What You’ll Need

• Paper
• A pencil
• An eraser
• Optional markers in red, yellow, blue, and green

Step 1: Draw the Egg Body

Start with an egg shape standing mostly upright, tilted just a little forward — narrow end up. Place it in the middle of your page but leave lots of room BELOW it. Parrot tails are long, and running out of paper is this tutorial’s only real danger.

Step 2: Add the Head Circle

Draw a circle at the top of the egg, overlapping it so the head and body share space — parrots don’t show much neck. Smooth the two shapes together with a soft curve at the back. Your parrot should already look pleasantly plump, which is exactly the vibe we want.

Step 3: Hook the Famous Beak

Here’s the parrot’s calling card. On the front of the head, draw a big beak that curves down like a comma or a candy cane hook — rounded on top, curling to a point at the bottom. Add a smaller upside-down curve beneath it for the lower beak. Be generous; a big hooked beak is what separates a parrot from a pigeon.

Step 4: Add the Eye and Face Patch

Draw an oval patch on the cheek beside the beak — macaws have this bare, pale face patch like a little mask. Inside it, place a round eye with a bold highlight dot. A couple of thin curved lines across the patch give it that classic macaw stripe detail.

Step 5: Fold the Wing

Along the side of the body, draw a long, leaf-shaped wing folded flat, starting at the shoulder and tapering to a point near the bottom of the egg. Add two or three curved lines inside it, stacked like roof shingles, to suggest layered feathers.

Step 6: Sweep the Long Tail

From the bottom of the body, sweep three or four long, slightly curved feathers downward — together they should be nearly as long as the whole body. Let them fan apart just a little at the tips. That dramatic tail is what gives a macaw its red-carpet elegance. ✨

Step 7: Perch It on a Branch

Draw a horizontal branch line under the body, then two little feet gripping it — each foot is just two small curved toes hooking over the front of the branch, like tiny croissants. Add a leaf or two at the branch’s end so your parrot has some jungle scenery.

Step 8: Unleash the Rainbow

Outline your final lines and erase the sketch. For a scarlet macaw look, color the head and body bright red, band the wing in yellow then blue, and finish the tail in red and blue streaks. Keep the face patch white and the beak cream-and-black. Or go fully green, or blue-and-gold — every parrot palette is a winner.

Tips to Make Your Parrot Drawing Even Cuter

• Tilt the head slightly sideways — the classic curious-parrot pose.
• Draw a little speech bubble with “Hello!” — parrots do love to chat.
• Add a cracker or a berry held up in one foot.
• Fluff three tiny feathers sticking up on top of the head like bedhead.
• Perch a mini parrot friend on the same branch, leaning on the big one.
• Scatter a few falling feathers in red, yellow, and blue beneath the branch.

FAQ

Is a parrot hard to draw?

Not with the perched pose — it’s an egg, a circle, and a hook. The beak curve takes a couple of tries, but the bold colors forgive everything else.

What colors should I use for my parrot?

Scarlet macaws are red, yellow, and blue; blue-and-gold macaws are blue on top with sunny yellow chests; and many parrots are simply green all over. You truly can’t pick wrong.

What age can kids follow this tutorial?

Around five or six with the steps in view. The coloring stage is the crowd-pleaser, so budget extra time for little artists to go full rainbow.

Polly says: nicely done! Your perch now hosts the brightest bird on the block. If majestic wings are calling you, glide over to our easy eagle drawing next, and flock to our YouTube channel where Wennie sketches feathered friends in real time. Keep those colors flying! 🎨