Garden BirdWatch Drawing Competition Winners

We asked who loved birds and loved drawing, and were amazed by the results! For our Garden BirdWatch summer drawing competition we asked children aged 5-11 to watch and count the birds in their gardens for Garden BirdWatch, and to draw a picture that captured their experience. Garden BirdWatch is a scientific project that monitors birds in gardens, and we are really excited to see so many younger birdwatchers getting involved.

Overall winner

It was hard to pick an overall winner! Congratulations to, Anna, 7, who has won a pair of Opticron Savanna 8x23 compact binoculars. Well done Anna!

Drawing by Anna, 7 — We loved the care and style of this drawing of a Blue Tit by Anna, 7, but what set it apart was her detailed commentary. We know what other birds she saw, the date she made her observations, and how the weather conditions affected her survey. She will make a great bird surveyor!

Runners-up

We loved looking at all of the drawings sent to us, and have chosen the images below as runners-up, and the artists will receive Gardman wooden Paint Your Own feeders. Some of the pictures are a little small on this page, but full-size versions will be published over on our Twitter account.

Drawing by Alex, 11 — We think this is a brilliantly-observed picture by Alex, 11, particularly the detail on the post and the belly feathers. The colour tones look very natural, and this has an end-of-summer feel.

Drawing by Audrey, 5 — Goldfinches are intricately patterned birds, and Audrey, 5, has done a great job of capturing the red around the face and the white-dotted black wings. The rest of the picture has a beautiful natural feel too.

Drawing by Brontë, 6 — Most people just see Magpies as black and white, but we love how Brontë, 6, has observed and painted the iridescent colours of the wings

Drawing by Poppy, 5 — Well done on this lovely painting Poppy, the colour of the red breast is so vibrant and we love the fingerprint leaves! By Poppy, 5

Drawing by Ewan, 6 — This Blackbird drawing by Ewan, 6, is full of character, and we think it seems like this Blackbird dad is in a hurry to feed a hungry brood! Amazing to have three broods in your garden this year, great observation Ewan.

Drawing by Violet, 5 — Violet's drawing of a Robin shows amazing blending of the colours in the wings, and we love the flying heart and crown too! Violet, 5, has clearly spent a lot of time observing the birds in her garden and thinks Robins are cute and chubby.

Drawing by Noah, 7 — Noah's well-observed Blue Tit is very cute, and we agree that Blue Tit chicks are cute too! We loved the ecological observation of the preferred foods, great birdwatching Noah. By Noah, 7

Drawings by Edward, 9 and Bryony, 5 — We enjoyed this pair of pictures by siblings Edward, 9, and Bryony, 5. Edward has made a great effort in his painting to show the environment, this is a lovely painting of a Robin on a lawn and has a very summery feel. Bryony has really set the scene in her picture of a Chaffinch, we love the fluffy clouds and vibrant colours, and the care she has taken to notice all the different colours on the bird

Drawings by Nils, 6, Hannah, 9 and Florence, 7 — Nils, 6, has put together a wonderful montage of birds in this picture, we'd love to see all of those birds together too Nils! We loved the feather detail on Florence's Greenfinch and the in-flight Blue Tit, Florence, 7, has really paid attention to all the feather structure. Hannah, 9, has come up with a slightly different interpretation of a Blue Tit, we loved the stylised look and the colour palette, showing a great interpretation of different feather tracts

Thank you so much for running this competition! My daughter is very excited to have got a prize, especially a bird feeder! I also want to say thank you for the Garden BirdWatch. We signed up to it in lockdown, and one of my other daughters, who is 11, completed it everyday before she started back at school in September (her sister has been helping her!) They have developed a love of birds and nature because of it, so thank you. We're still doing the count, and have really noticed how the birds are changing during the year.