Title: The Aviary: Bird Portraits to Colour
Illustrators: Richard Merritt, Claire Scully
Publisher: LOM Art
Genre: Colouring
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Review: I bought this book in a local store some time ago now, along with two other colouring books. I had no idea The Aviary was available but I couldn’t pass the chance of buying it after owning and loving The Menagerie: Animal Portraits to Colour! I think I love this book even more than The Menagerie, especially because of all the different birds.
The book is square in size and the same size and thickness as The Menagerie which is slightly taller and wider than books like Millie Marotta’s and Johanna Basford’s. The book is filled with many different images of birds. The pages are crisp white and nice and thick. Pencils work very well and pens will work well too as each images is printed on only one side. The pages are not perforated but I’ve had no problems in colouring these images into the spine as the birds are usually in the centre of the paper.
Each bird design is very detailed and I’m amazed at how beautiful and realistic so many of the birds are. You can colour in each tiny segment separately or splash larger areas with colour but I’m somebody who loves the little intricate sections so I really love this book. As I said there are lots of different birds and each of them have a realistic look or outline and I particularly love the baby penguin, it’s so fat and cute! 🙂
I can really recommend this book. There are tiny areas that have a bit of colour in them on the pages, but this is usually just some leaves or flowers in the background, and it doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of colouring in the birds which I’m still amazed at how realistic and cute they all are!
I’ll leave you with a list of all the birds that are in this book, some I have to admit I hadn’t heard of before! (the list appears in the front of the book): atlantic puffin, barn swallows, indian peafowl, macaw, grew crowned crane, bald eagle, swallow-tailed humming bird, mallard ducks, brown pelican Welsummer chicken, lovebirds, southern cassowary, south American great horned owl, red-billed toucan, swan, blue jay, emperor penguin chick, Victoria crowned pigeon, greater flamingo, queen Victoria’s riflebird, raven, white-capped albatross, common kingfisher, common ostritch, great blue herons, Major Mitchell’s cockatoo, long-legged buzzard, red-bellied woodpecker, hoopoe, pheasant, blue-footed boobies.
What do you think of this book? Do you like how realistic the images are? Have you heard of all the birds in the list? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 