Birds - Full Bodies

To start off, we'll break the body down into some really basic shapes. The head and body are basically just a couple of ovals.

I'm connecting the head to the body and adding some facial details first, but only due to my preference of working in details from head to tail. I won't go into detail about the head details since there's a section specifically about bird heads.

Bird legs can be confusing since you can only ever actually see the ankle joint protruding from the body which makes it seem like birds just have backwards knees when really, they just have really long "feet" and strangely attached toes. A bird's knees (hidden within its body) and feet are aligned with its centre of gravity which is found in the middle of its body. This positioning makes sure the bird isn't off balance when on the ground.

Where the tailfeathers connect is going to stick out a bit. It's the area where the spine ends and is called the "rump." The tailfeathers are layered such that the one in the middle is fully exposed when looking at the bird from above.

The wing, like a human arm, has a shoulder joint, an elbow joint, and a wrist joint. The shoulder and wrist joints both meet up with the base of the bird's neck when the wing is folded and the bones between them are sized such that the wrist will line up with the shoulder (like in humans).

Here's the finished result after going over the sketch with some more details. Keep in mind when drawing the wing feathers that the part of the feather facing towards the ground (or away from the bird if the wings are spread) is exposed and the opposite side is covered by the next feather. This layering is opposite for the underside of the wing.