I’m super excited to share our latest printable template—a 3D macaw parrot craft. The Macaw ‘pops’ off a page decorated with vibrant jungle leaves.
This 3D papercraft is a fun way for kids to practice fine motor skills and support rainforest or Amazon Jungle-themed learning. It also makes cool wallart.
Who can resist gorgeous, colourful parrots?
Macaws are found in tropical regions of South America and are known for their vibrant feathers as well as their intelligence. Did you know a Macaw has the approximate smarts of a 4-year-old child? And if you decide to get one as a pet, it could potentially outlive you because they are known to live up to 50 years when kept in captivity (or 35 years in the wild because of natural predators and other hazards).
If you love macaws and don’t want to make a lifetime commitment as a pet owner, make our paper version!
These rainforest birds come in a range of different colours and sub-species types, but for this template I’ve focussed on the Blue and Yellow Macaw (that’s the actual name of the sub-species) because blue and yellow are my favourite colours. Of course, if you’re going with the colour-your-own version, your parrot can be any colour you like!
Ready to get started?
How to make a 3D paper Macaw
Each 3D Macaw uses four sheets of white paper (standard printer paper is fine), and one sheet of backing card stock in aqua, sky blue or green.
The suggested age range is 7+.
You will need:
- Card stock backing sheet (aqua, sky blue or green works best)
- Ordinary white paper (4 pages per Macaw)
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Markers, pencils, crayons, etc if colouring your own
- The printable template, available in our printable store and also in our TPT store
How to:
Print the template out and cut out the shapes.
Glue the backing shape onto your sheet of card stock.
Fold the flaps on the torso shape and glue them so the bird’s chest forms a curved shape. Glue this to the backing shape in the space labelled ‘torso’. Line the flat edge up with the flat edge of the perch.
Fold and glue the shapes for the wings, head, beak and perch together and stick onto the appropriately labelled spaces.
The tail and wing tips need no folding, just stick them to the page.
Arrange and glue the leaves into the space surrounding your Macaw so the bird appears to be surrounded by jungle.
What’s your favourite rainforest animal?
More Rainforest animal crafts for kids
- Make a realistic paper chain python. We have a Jungle Carpet python and a Green Tree python template (or you can design and colour your own!)
- Create a paper plate cassowary, found in the Daintree Rainforest of Tropical North Queensland
- Here is a template for a Green Tree Frog, also native to the Daintree Rainforest
- Make a realistic 3D Monarch Butterfly complete with anatomy labels
More 3D paper animal crafts
