Birdtober 2026

I have been very busy this month, not only creating new pieces of artwork, but also creating a new piece of artwork every day for the Birdtober challenge on Instagram.

For those of you who haven't heard of this before, it is a challenge created by an artist in America whom provides a set list of birds whereby you have to create a piece of artwork of the specified bird.

I have been completing this challenge for a number of years now (and it is a challenge to complete and you have to be disciplined to keep up) and this year I have decided to create artwork for each bird on a tree slice, with the bird drawn using pyrography (wood burning) and then hand-painted.

It is fun to create artwork of birds I've never heard of before, I mean have you heard of an Andean cock-of-the-rock before? I hadn't!, but it also keeps my skills active rather than sticking to the birds I enjoy painting and drawing the most. Once I've completed it I will receive a lovely certificate and sticker, which is nice as a memnto of the hard work taken to complete it.