A hummingbird painting gives you everything a garden lover wants on one small canvas: quick wings, a jewel of a throat, and flowers that get to be just as showy as the bird. Acrylic is the right medium for this because it goes down opaque and fast, so a tiny bird can read clearly against cream or soft green in a single sitting, and any color shift along a feather can be glazed on top once the base layer is dry.
Below you get 31 ideas, starting with hummingbirds at feeders, nests, vines and sprinklers, then moving on to other small jewel-colored garden birds: buntings, tanagers, an oriole, a motmot and more, each caught in its own flower or branch moment. Work through them in order if you like building confidence, or jump straight to the one that matches what is blooming in your head today.
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Start with the flower, not the bird: block in two or three orange trumpet vine blooms with a flat brush loaded with cadmium orange, letting each one taper to a narrow throat. Once that shape is dry, paint the hummingbird’s body as a simple teardrop in front of it, wings as two soft grey-green blurs either side, and the long thin beak reaching into the nearest bloom.
Beginners often make the bird too big for the flower, so hold your brush up to the canvas and check the bird’s body is no longer than two blooms laid end to end. Keep the background a plain wash of warm cream so the orange and green stay the stars.
If you do not have cadmium orange, mix cadmium yellow with a touch of naphthol red; it gets you close enough for a trumpet vine bloom. Finish by flicking a few darker green leaves behind the flowers with the tip of a round brush, so the bird has somewhere to perch visually even though it never lands.
Today’s tip: paint the beak last, in one confident thin line, so it stays crisp instead of getting lost under later layers.
Palette: Cadmium Orange,Sap Green,Payne’s Grey,Titanium White
A red feeder gives you a strong graphic shape to balance the softness of a hovering bird, so block it in first as a simple glass bulb with a yellow base, using a ruler edge or steady hand for the straight hanging wire. Let that dry completely before you bring the hummingbird in close to one of the yellow feeding ports, body angled slightly downward as if caught mid-sip.
The eye level matters here: paint the feeder slightly above your own eye line, since feeders hang overhead in most gardens, which naturally tips the bird’s underside toward the viewer and catches more light on its belly. That light should come from one side only, so pick left or right and keep every highlight on that same edge of the bird and feeder.
If red plastic feels flat, warm it with a thin glaze of alizarin crimson over a base of cadmium red once dry. No red feeder on hand to reference? A red tulip shape works as a stand-in silhouette and reads just as well.
Today’s tip: leave one small unpainted dot of canvas on the glass for the shine, it does more than any white paint added later.
Palette: Cadmium Red,Alizarin Crimson,Hansa Yellow,Emerald Green
A walnut-sized nest is one of the sweetest hummingbird subjects because it asks for patience rather than speed, so begin with a loose oval shape built from short curved strokes of burnt umber and raw sienna layered over each other to suggest woven lichen and spider silk. Keep the strokes going in the same rounded direction all the way round, following the curve of the nest rather than painting straight lines across it.
Once the nest shape is dry, add two tiny white-grey eggs nestled inside, each no bigger than a pea, with one soft shadow underneath to seat them properly in the cup. A dry brush with very little paint, dragged lightly over the nest’s rim, gives you that fuzzy, lichen-flecked texture without losing the shape underneath; if your brush feels too wet, blot it on a paper towel first.
Set the nest on a thin forked twig rather than floating it in space, which grounds the whole painting and gives you somewhere to rest a leaf or two. No raw sienna in your set? Burnt sienna mixed with a touch of yellow ochre gets you close.
Today’s tip: vary the pressure of your dry brush strokes so the nest texture never looks like one flat pattern.
You Will Need
- dry flat brush for texture
Palette: Burnt Umber,Raw Sienna,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey
Fuchsias give you two colors in one bloom, so paint each flower as a little dancer: a magenta skirt of petals hanging below a slimmer purple-red tube, repeated three or four times down a drooping stem. Let the stem curve naturally rather than painting it ruler-straight, since fuchsias always hang with a bit of droop and weight.
Bring the hummingbird in sideways to one of the lower blooms, its body tucked close enough that one wingtip overlaps a leaf, which ties bird and flower together as one shape rather than two separate elements. This is where many painters lose the magenta to mud by overmixing, so keep your pink and purple as two separate clean mixes and let them meet wet-into-wet only where the petal folds.
A kneaded eraser pressed gently onto a dry graphite underdrawing lifts any stray pencil lines before you varnish, keeping the fuchsia’s edges clean under the acrylic. No magenta in your palette? Quinacridone rose mixed with a touch of ultramarine gets you there.
Today’s tip: paint the darkest purple tube first, then build the pink skirt over the top so the two colors stay distinct.
Palette: Quinacridone Magenta,Dioxazine Purple,Sap Green,Titanium White
If you want a step-by-step warm-up before this one, the watercolor birds tutorial cards cover similar perched poses in a slower, guided way.
Capture the moment with droplets rather than streaks: paint the hummingbird first, wings slightly spread and feathers a touch fluffed as if mid-shake, then add a scatter of fine white dots around it for mist using the tip of a round brush loaded thin. For a wider spray, load an old toothbrush lightly with white paint and flick it across the dry background with your thumb, holding scrap paper over anything you want to protect.
Work from darkest to lightest here: block the bird’s body and the greenery behind it first, let it all dry fully, and only then add the white mist dots on top, since white sinks and dulls if it goes under darker colors. Keep the spray loose and uneven rather than evenly spaced, which is what makes it read as water rather than snow.
No toothbrush handy? A stiff stencil brush tapped against your finger gives a similar fine spatter. Today’s tip: leave some mist dots overlapping the bird’s wing and some floating free in the background, which pushes the water forward in space and makes the whole scene feel caught mid-motion.
You Will Need
- old toothbrush for splatter
Palette: Emerald Green,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey,Cerulean Blue
Salvia spikes are a gift for painters because they are just a row of small tubular flowers stacked up a stem, so build the spike from the bottom up with short overlapping dabs of scarlet, each one slightly smaller as you move toward the tip. Let the base dry before glazing a touch of alizarin crimson into the shadow side of the spike for depth.
Position the hummingbird at eye level with the salvia’s middle flowers rather than the top, since that is where a real bird naturally feeds and it keeps the composition balanced rather than top-heavy. Light from one side should catch the bird’s back and the near side of the salvia spike, leaving the far side in soft shadow.
If scarlet reads too orange next to your greens, cool it slightly with a whisper of alizarin crimson before you start the spike. Today’s tip: paint two or three salvia spikes at different heights behind the main one, kept slightly softer and bluer, to give the scene real depth without extra fuss.
Palette: Scarlet Red,Alizarin Crimson,Sap Green,Titanium White
Two birds in flight is a step up from one, so sketch their positions loosely first in pencil before any paint touches the canvas, making sure their bodies form a diagonal or a loose S-curve across the frame rather than sitting side by side like twins. Paint the bird further back first, slightly smaller and a shade cooler in color, then bring the front bird in bolder and warmer so the eye knows which one to land on first.
Compare the two bodies against each other as you go: if one wingspan is noticeably wider than the same bird’s body length, it has gotten away from you, so measure with your brush handle held at arm’s length before committing to paint. Wings on both birds should blur in the same direction of movement, which sells the dance far more than careful detail would.
No pencil for the underdrawing? A thin wash of diluted burnt sienna sketched with a liner brush works just as well and disappears under later layers. Today’s tip: keep the background plain so two busy birds do not compete with a third element for attention.
Palette: Emerald Green,Ruby Red,Payne’s Grey,Titanium White
Perching poses let you slow right down, since the bird is not fighting gravity and every feather can be placed with care. Paint the twig first as two or three confident curved lines in burnt umber, thinner at the tip than at the base, then sit the bird’s feet over it only once that twig is fully dry so the lines stay crisp underneath the toes.
This is a good subject for practicing dry brush work on the breast feathers: load a flat brush with a small amount of paint, wipe most of it off on a paper towel, then drag it lightly in the direction the feathers lie. Too much paint on the brush turns this into a solid blob instead of texture, so always test the stroke on scrap paper first.
If your twig looks too stiff, round off the ends and add a tiny side branch for a more natural feel. No scrap paper to test on? The back of the canvas board works fine. Today’s tip: leave the twig a touch lighter in tone than the bird so the eye goes to the bird first.
Palette: Burnt Umber,Emerald Green,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey
This is the ten-minute painting that becomes a forty-minute one the moment you decide to chase the throat properly. For the quick version, block the whole bird in flat grey-green, then dab a single patch of magenta-gold iridescent medium onto the throat while the base is still slightly tacky, letting the two blend just at the edges for a quick glow.
For the longer version, let the base dry fully, then build the throat in three or four thin glazes, each one a slightly different color (ruby, then gold, then a touch of green) applied in small overlapping patches rather than one flat wash, which is what gives real iridescent feathers their shifting look depending on the angle you view them from. Keep every other part of the bird matte and muted so the throat is the only thing that shines.
No iridescent medium on hand? Mix a tiny bit of pearlescent white into your ruby red for a similar, if quieter, shimmer. Today’s tip: step back from the canvas often while glazing the throat, since shimmer reads very differently up close than from across a room.
You Will Need
- iridescent or pearlescent acrylic medium
Palette: Ruby Red,Gold Ochre,Emerald Green,Payne’s Grey
Honeysuckle flowers twist and trumpet in pairs, so paint them as little pinwheels: two or three pale yellow tubes fanning out from a single green base, with one or two tinged pink at the tip for variety. Let the vine itself curl loosely around the edge of the canvas rather than running straight up one side, which gives the whole piece more movement.
Bring the ruby-throated hummingbird in at a slight downward angle toward the nearest bloom, and pay special attention to proportion here: the beak should run roughly the same length as the bird’s head, not longer, which is the detail that most often makes a hummingbird look like a different bird entirely. Hold a pencil up against your reference or your own sketch to check that length before you commit it in paint.
If pale yellow honeysuckle looks washed out against cream, warm it with a touch of yellow ochre at the base of each tube. Today’s tip: paint the ruby throat in a single confident patch rather than several small dabs, which keeps it looking like a true throat rather than scattered freckles.
Palette: Hansa Yellow,Ruby Red,Sap Green,Titanium White
Adding a hand to the composition raises the difficulty, so simplify it: paint the hand as a soft, gently cupped shape without worrying over every knuckle, holding a single open bloom (a hibiscus or large daisy works well) toward the hovering bird. Block the hand in a warm flesh tone first, keep the fingers slightly loose and relaxed rather than stiff, and add shadow only where the flower’s stem crosses the palm.
Place the bird at the hand’s eye level rather than above it, drinking from the flower’s center, which makes the whole scene feel like a quiet held breath rather than a snapshot. This is a good one to measure against itself: the flower should be roughly the width of the palm, no bigger, or the hand starts to look like a toy.
If skin tones feel tricky, mix a small amount of burnt sienna into titanium white and adjust warmth with a touch of cadmium red rather than reaching for a premixed flesh color. Today’s tip: keep the hand’s edges soft and slightly undefined so the eye still goes first to the bird and bloom.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Titanium White,Cadmium Red,Emerald Green
Rain changes the light more than anything else on this list, so start by deciding your light source is soft and overcast rather than direct sun, which means fewer sharp highlights and more gentle, even grey-green tones across the bird’s back. Paint the bird and a single wet leaf or branch first, then once dry, add thin diagonal streaks of pale grey-white paint across the whole canvas with a liner brush to suggest falling rain.
Keep every rain streak running in the same direction and at the same steep angle, since mixed angles read as scribble rather than weather. A few larger, rounder drops caught on the leaf’s edge (small dots of white with a touch of grey shadow beneath) sell the wet mood better than streaks alone.
No liner brush for fine lines? The edge of an old credit card dragged through thin paint gives a similar streaked effect. Today’s tip: keep the bird itself slightly duller and damper looking than on a sunny-day painting, since even jewel colors mute a little under grey sky.
Palette: Payne’s Grey,Sap Green,Titanium White,Emerald Green
A hanging basket gives you a built-in frame of overflowing color, so paint the basket shape first as a simple woven oval in burnt umber, then fill it generously with petunia blooms in two or three shades of purple and pink, overlapping them so none sit in a neat row. Let the flowers spill over the basket’s edge rather than stopping neatly at the rim, which is how a real overflowing basket actually looks.
Hang the whole basket slightly off-center in the composition and bring the hummingbird in from one side, hovering at a bloom near the bottom of the spill rather than the top, since that pulls the eye down through the flowers in a natural path. This is a busy subject, so resist adding more than two flower colors or it turns muddy fast.
No burnt umber for the basket weave? A mix of burnt sienna and a touch of black gets a similar warm brown. Today’s tip: paint the chain or rope the basket hangs from last, in one or two thin confident lines, so it does not get buried under the flowers.
Palette: Dioxazine Purple,Quinacridone Magenta,Burnt Umber,Emerald Green
For more ways to fill a basket or border with blooms before adding a bird, the ideas in acrylic painting flowers for beginners are worth a look.
Ferns are made of repeating shapes, which makes them oddly relaxing to paint once you settle into the rhythm: start with one central stem per frond, then add paired leaflets working from the base up, each pair slightly smaller than the last as you near the tip. Vary your green mixes slightly between fronds, some cooler with a touch of blue, some warmer with yellow, so the whole fern does not read as one flat color.
Tuck the hummingbird into a gap between two fronds rather than in front of them, letting a leaflet or two overlap its tail, which seats the bird into the greenery convincingly instead of pasting it on top. This is a quiet, low-light subject, so keep your palette muted and avoid bright highlights that would suggest direct sun.
No variety in your green paints? Mix sap green with small amounts of yellow ochre or ultramarine to shift it warmer or cooler as you go. Today’s tip: leave a few small gaps of bare cream background showing through the fern, which keeps the greenery from feeling like a solid wall.
Palette: Sap Green,Yellow Ochre,Ultramarine Blue,Titanium White
This is the most involved hummingbird scene on the list, so give yourself the full forty minutes and build it in layers: background first (a soft wash of pale green and cream for distant foliage), then the wooden bench as a simple structure of straight and slightly curved lines, and only then the salvia spikes growing up around its legs.
Keep the bench smaller in the frame than you think it needs to be, since this is still a bird painting and the bench is a setting, not the subject; a bench that takes up a third of the canvas will fight the hummingbird for attention. Place the bird hovering just above the salvia near one end of the bench rather than dead center, which gives the whole scene a more natural, caught-in-passing feeling.
If perspective on the bench feels daunting, simplify it to a front-on view with no deep angles, which reads perfectly well as a garden bench without any vanishing points to manage. Today’s tip: add one fallen petal or leaf on the bench seat, a small detail that makes the whole scene feel lived in.
Palette: Scarlet Red,Sap Green,Burnt Umber,Titanium White
Moving on from hummingbirds, the bee-eater is a lovely next bird to try because its body is built from bands of color rather than one solid tone, so paint it section by section: green back, golden throat, and a dark mask through the eye, each block kept clean before the next goes on. Its long curved beak is a confident single stroke, thin at the tip, so practice that line on scrap paper a few times before committing.
Sit the bird on a plain, slightly diagonal branch rather than a straight horizontal one, which suits its upright, alert posture better and gives the composition some energy. Compare the beak length to the head one more time before you finish, since a too-short beak is the easiest way to lose the bee-eater’s character.
No golden yellow in your set? Mix hansa yellow with a touch of cadmium orange for that warm throat color. Today’s tip: leave the tail feathers long and slightly tapered, trailing off the branch, which is one of the bee-eater’s most recognizable features.
Palette: Emerald Green,Hansa Yellow,Burnt Umber,Payne’s Grey
Few garden birds give you as many colors to play with at once as the lilac-breasted roller, so plan your blocks before you paint: lilac chest, turquoise belly, olive back, and deep blue wing flashes, each mixed separately in advance so you are not scrambling mid-painting. Build the body from chest to tail, laying the lightest lilac down first since darker colors are easier to paint accurately over a light base than the reverse.
Perch the roller on a plain branch at a slight side angle so both the lilac chest and the turquoise wing edge are visible at once, which is really the whole point of painting this bird. Light from above will catch the turquoise best, so keep your highlight there rather than spreading it evenly across every color block.
If turquoise looks too green in your mix, cool it with a touch more ultramarine blue. Today’s tip: keep the background very plain and pale, since this bird’s own colors are busy enough without competition.
Palette: Turquoise,Dioxazine Purple,Olive Green,Ultramarine Blue
The painted bunting looks like it was colored by a child with no fear of clashing, and that is exactly the attitude to bring to this one: blue head, red breast, green back, painted as flat confident shapes with hard edges between them rather than any soft blending. Start with the blue head since it is the smallest area, then work down the body toward the tail.
Give the bunting a simple perch, a single sunflower leaf or a bare twig, and keep it smaller in scale than the bird so all the attention stays on those three bold colors. This is a good subject for the ten-minute version: block the three main colors, add a dark eye and beak, and stop, no further shading needed for it to read clearly.
For the forty-minute version, add thin darker glazes along the feather edges of each color block to suggest some structure without softening the bold flatness that makes this bird special. No pure green on hand? Mix sap green with a touch of yellow ochre for a slightly mossier tone that still reads well. Today’s tip: keep the eye a single small dark dot, painted last, for the most lifelike expression.
Palette: Ultramarine Blue,Scarlet Red,Sap Green,Payne’s Grey
A sunflower head gives you a strong round anchor for this small blue bird, so paint the flower first: a dark brown center built from short overlapping dabs, surrounded by petals painted as simple elongated teardrops radiating outward, no two exactly the same length. Let that dry before perching the indigo bunting on the flower’s edge, its feet gripping where two petals meet.
Indigo is a tricky color to get right since the bird shifts between deep blue and almost black depending on light, so mix your base from ultramarine blue with a touch of black, then glaze a slightly brighter cobalt blue over the areas that would catch the most light, usually the head and upper back. Compare the bunting’s size against one sunflower petal as you paint; the whole bird should be roughly as long as two to three petals laid end to end.
No cobalt blue available? A touch of white mixed into ultramarine gives a similar lifted highlight. Today’s tip: let a few sunflower seeds show as tiny dark ovals in the center for a nice grounding detail.
Palette: Ultramarine Blue,Cobalt Blue,Hansa Yellow,Burnt Umber
Few birds offer a color contrast as satisfying as the scarlet tanager, whose body is pure red against wings and tail of near-black, so treat this as an exercise in bold edges rather than blending. Paint the red body first in one flat, even coat of scarlet, let it dry fully, then add the black wings and tail on top with crisp straight edges where they meet the red, no feathering between the two colors.
Perch the tanager on a leafy green branch at eye level, since this bird is usually seen up in tree canopies rather than low down, and that higher vantage point suits its upright, alert stance. If the scarlet looks orange next to your greens, cool it slightly with the tiniest touch of alizarin crimson before applying the final coat.
No pure scarlet on your palette? Cadmium red with a touch of naphthol red gets a close match. Today’s tip: keep the black areas truly flat and matte rather than glossy, which keeps the contrast between red and black feeling crisp rather than muddy.
Palette: Scarlet Red,Ivory Black,Sap Green,Titanium White
A weathered fence rail is a simple, friendly setting for this one, so paint it first as two or three horizontal planks in soft grey-brown, using a dry brush dragged lightly along the wood grain direction to suggest texture without overworking it. Let that dry, then perch the bluebird on top, its blue back catching the most light since it sits above the fence line against open sky.
Bluebird blue shifts between a warm and cool tone depending on the light, so build it in two layers: a base of ultramarine blue, then a lighter glaze of cerulean on the areas facing your chosen light source, leaving the shadow side closer to the darker base tone. Its rusty orange breast should go down before the blue back, since it is easier to paint the small blue wing feathers over a dry orange base than the reverse.
No cerulean blue handy? Mix ultramarine with a touch of white and a whisper of green. Today’s tip: keep the fence simple and a little rough at the edges, which suits a garden bird far better than anything too polished.
Palette: Ultramarine Blue,Cerulean Blue,Burnt Orange,Burnt Umber
An orange half cut open gives you a strong warm shape to pair with the oriole’s own fiery color, so start with the fruit: a simple circle sliced flat, segments suggested with a few curved lines radiating from the center, and a slightly pulpy, uneven edge rather than a perfect geometric slice. Let the orange dry before bringing the bird in, perched right on the rind with its beak dipped toward the fruit’s flesh.
Orange and orioles share such a close color family that the trick here is value, not hue: keep the bird’s orange a shade or two darker and richer than the fruit’s orange, with the black head and wings providing the contrast that keeps the two from blurring into one shape. Glaze the fruit’s cut flesh with a touch of white mixed in for that slightly translucent, juicy look.
No real orange to reference the color from? A tangerine or even a photo on your phone screen works fine for matching the hue. Today’s tip: add one small drip of juice running down the rind for a nice lively detail that took seconds to paint.
Palette: Cadmium Orange,Ivory Black,Hansa Yellow,Titanium White
The green jay turns the usual blue jay palette inside out, with a yellow-green body, black bib, and a surprising flash of blue around the face, so map these zones out lightly in pencil before any paint goes down. Build the body first in a base of yellow-green, then add the black bib as a clean, hard-edged shape rather than anything feathered or soft at the boundary.
Its blue facial patches are small but important, since they are what make this jay instantly recognizable rather than just another green bird, so save a tiny dab of sky blue for last, applied with the tip of a fine round brush right around the eye area. Perch the jay on a leafy branch with large leaves rather than small ones, since its own body shape is fairly blocky and chunky foliage suits it better than delicate twigs.
No yellow-green premixed? Sap green with a generous amount of hansa yellow gets you there quickly. Today’s tip: keep the black bib slightly glossy by adding a touch of extra medium to that mix, which helps it read as feathers rather than a flat black patch.
Palette: Sap Green,Hansa Yellow,Ivory Black,Sky Blue
This bird’s long tail with its bare shaft and paddle tip is the whole reason to paint it, so plan your composition around that tail swinging below the perch before you touch the body. Block the body first in warm olive and cinnamon tones, then add the turquoise brow stripe as a crisp curved line above the eye, the one detail that gives this bird its name and its charm.
The tail itself is painted in two stages: a thin, mostly bare shaft painted with a liner brush in one smooth stroke, then a small rounded paddle shape at the very tip once that shaft is dry. Compare the tail’s length to the body as you paint; on a real motmot it is often longer than the entire rest of the bird, so do not be shy about letting it run.
No liner brush for that thin tail shaft? The very tip of a round brush, used on its point only, gets a similarly fine line. Today’s tip: let the tail swing gently to one side rather than hanging perfectly straight down, which adds life to an otherwise still, perched pose.
Palette: Olive Green,Cinnamon,Turquoise,Ivory Black
Few small birds come in as many colors at once as the Gouldian finch, with a purple chest, yellow belly, green back and a head that can be red, black or gold depending on the individual, so pick one head color before you start and commit to it fully. Block each color zone as a clean separate shape, working from the smallest area (the head) outward to the larger chest and back.
This finch suits the ten-minute quick version nicely: four flat color blocks, a small black eye, and a simple perch, with no shading needed since the natural color contrast carries the whole painting. For the forty-minute version, add soft glazes where each color meets the next, a sliver of blended transition rather than a hard line, which gives a slightly more lifelike, feathered finish.
No purple for the chest? Mix dioxazine purple with a touch of white to lighten it to the right pastel-jewel tone. Today’s tip: keep the perch thin and plain, maybe just a single grass stem, so four busy colors do not have to compete with a fussy setting too.
Palette: Dioxazine Purple,Hansa Yellow,Sap Green,Scarlet Red
The paradise tanager is almost too colorful to believe, turquoise head, red lower back, green and black wings, so resist the urge to soften any of it; paint each zone flat and bright, letting the natural contrast do the work rather than blending toward a safer middle ground. Start with the turquoise head since it is the smallest and most important shape to get right early.
Give this bird a simple leafy perch and light coming from above, which is typical for a bird usually seen high in tree canopies, so the strongest highlight should sit along the top of the head and back rather than the belly. If the turquoise and red end up fighting for attention, let the turquoise take up more of the body and keep the red patch smaller, since that matches the real proportions and quiets the clash.
No true turquoise in your set? Mix a little more green into your cerulean blue until it shifts warmer. Today’s tip: finish with the black wing markings last, in small confident strokes, since they are what pull all the bright color blocks into one recognizable bird.
Palette: Turquoise,Scarlet Red,Emerald Green,Ivory Black
This small starling shows off a deep violet sheen across its back that shifts with the light, which makes it a natural subject for revisiting once you have painted it once in a simple way. The first time through, keep it straightforward: a base coat of dioxazine purple across the back and head, a clean white or pale belly, and a plain perch, no glazing needed to get a convincing bird.
Once that version works for you, the next one can push further: glaze a thin layer of blue-violet over just the areas that would catch direct light, leave the shadow side closer to the flatter base purple, and add a whisper of pink at the very edge of the sheen where light grazes the feathers most directly. Try painting the same bird again on a smaller canvas with a brighter background to see how the violet holds up against more competition.
No dioxazine purple available? Ultramarine blue mixed with alizarin crimson makes a close, slightly warmer substitute. Today’s tip: keep the white belly slightly warm rather than stark, a touch of yellow ochre mixed in keeps it from looking pasted on.
Palette: Dioxazine Purple,Titanium White,Ultramarine Blue,Yellow Ochre
This nest hangs like a woven pouch rather than sitting in a cup, so build it with long vertical strokes of warm grass-tan color rather than the rounded dabs used for a cup nest, letting the strokes hang and taper toward a narrower closed bottom. Attach it to the branch with two or three thin fiber lines painted at the very top, where a real woven nest wraps around its anchor point.
Compare the nest’s length to the branch’s thickness as you paint: a Bullock’s oriole nest is often longer than it is wide, closer to a sock shape than a ball, so keep it elongated rather than letting it round out into something that reads more like a regular bird’s nest. A little dry brushing along the nest’s sides in a slightly darker tan adds the fibrous, woven texture without needing to paint every strand.
No warm tan premixed? Yellow ochre with a touch of burnt umber gets a close grassy color. Today’s tip: let one or two loose grass fibers dangle free from the bottom of the nest for a nice, slightly wild finishing detail.
Palette: Yellow Ochre,Burnt Umber,Sap Green,Titanium White
Pair this bunting with another simple fence rail for a bit of visual rhyme with the earlier bluebird idea, though this time keep the wood a touch paler and drier looking, since a lazuli bunting’s bright turquoise-blue head and cinnamon breast deserve a quieter backdrop. Paint the fence first in soft grey, then bring the bird’s blue head and back in once it is dry, followed by the warm cinnamon breast band.
Its wing bars, two thin white stripes, are a small but important detail that separates this bunting from an indigo bunting at a glance, so save them for last and paint them as two crisp, confident strokes rather than smudged highlights. Light from above will catch the blue head most strongly, so let that be the brightest point in the whole painting.
No cinnamon shade mixed yet? Burnt sienna with a touch of yellow ochre warms it up nicely. Today’s tip: keep the fence rail shorter than the width of the canvas, letting it run off one edge only, which feels more natural than a rail spanning the whole frame.
Palette: Turquoise,Burnt Sienna,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey
Few birds glow as brightly as a vermilion flycatcher against green garden foliage, so set up that contrast early: paint the background greenery first in a muted, slightly desaturated green so the bird’s red can really sing against it once it goes on top. Block the body in flat vermilion red, keeping the darker brown-black wings and mask as a separate, later layer painted with crisp edges rather than blended ones.
Perch the flycatcher on a bare, thin twig out in the open rather than tucked into leaves, since this bird is typically seen perched conspicuously, watching for insects, and that open perch suits its alert, upright posture. If vermilion reads too orange once it is down, a thin glaze of alizarin crimson over the top cools and deepens it without losing the brightness.
No vermilion in your paint set? Cadmium red mixed with a small amount of cadmium orange gets a close, warm match. Today’s tip: keep the background foliage looser and less detailed than the bird itself, so the eye has nowhere to go but straight to that red.
Palette: Vermilion,Alizarin Crimson,Sap Green,Ivory Black
Close the set with a fully red bird settled into warm fruit tones, so start with the peach tree itself: a few soft green leaves and one or two ripe peaches painted as rounded forms with a gentle blush of pink-orange where the light catches them. Let that dry before bringing the summer tanager in, perched on a branch close enough to a peach that the two warm colors sit near each other in the frame.
This tanager is red from head to tail with no contrasting patches at all, which makes it a good subject for practicing subtle value shifts rather than color changes: keep the same red hue throughout the body, but darken it slightly with a touch of burnt umber on the shadow side and lighten it with a touch of white where the light hits the back and head.
If the peaches and the bird start blending into one red-orange mass, cool the peach color slightly with a touch of yellow ochre to separate the two warm tones. Today’s tip: finish with one small peach leaf overlapping the bird’s tail, which ties the whole composition together as one warm, sunlit moment.
Palette: Cadmium Red,Peach,Sap Green,Burnt Umber
For more cozy, fruit-filled compositions to pair with a bird study, the ideas in oil painting flowers for beginners translate well into acrylic too.
What to Do Next
Pick one idea that matches what is blooming near you today, set up a canvas board and your acrylics, and start with the flower or setting before the bird goes in. Work through the list in order if you want to build up from simple perches to busier garden scenes, and keep that background plain and pale so every jewel color gets to shine.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best paint for a hummingbird painting?
Acrylic suits a hummingbird painting best because it dries fast and goes down opaque, letting you layer bright throat colors and crisp feather edges in one sitting without the colors bleeding into each other.
How do you paint the shimmering throat on a hummingbird?
Build the throat in thin glazes of two or three colors, such as ruby, gold and a touch of green, applied in small overlapping patches once the base coat is dry, rather than mixing one flat color.
What background works best behind a hummingbird or garden bird painting?
A soft, plain cream or pale wash works best because it keeps the bird and flowers as the brightest, most detailed elements, letting jewel colors like ruby and turquoise read clearly without competing with a busy backdrop.
How do you keep a hummingbird’s proportions accurate?
Compare the beak length to the head and the body length to the wingspan before committing to paint, since a beak painted too long or wings too wide are the most common reasons a hummingbird stops looking right.
Can beginners paint jewel-toned birds like tanagers and buntings in one sitting?
Yes, most of these birds can be finished in a single sitting if the colors are blocked in as flat, clean shapes first and any detail or glazing is added only once that base layer has dried.