Tiny birds tutorial

I'm using Arlene's Flower Fairy block to demonstrate. Here's a couple of sketches of the stitches' placement. I just noticed that I drew the sitting bird facing right, while the one I stitched faces left. Hope that's not too confusing. These birds are tiny, about 1/2" when done in size 8, just a little bigger when done in size 5, which is what I used here.

Begin the first and larger of the two bullions for the bird's breast and body. I don't count wraps; I "eyeball" the distance of the stitch, and since I want this bullion to curve like a bird's breast and belly, I make more wraps than needed to just cover that distance. If you plan to make a lot of birds and want them uniform, you might want to count your wraps, but I figure Mother Nature isn't very uniform in making her birds, so why should I be?

The first bullion is done and laying down where it should rest. Take a tacking stitch at some point along its length to keep it in that curve.

The second bullion should curve to fit into the first, and it should be a little shorter, so fewer wraps.

On the head end of the bird, make a 4 wrap French knot. Sometimes it helps to tack the French knot on both sides so it lays like you want it.

Add straight stitches for the wing....

...and for the tail, refer to sketch for placement.

I gave the orange bird two tiny straight stitches to make a little crest or topknot on its head; this is optional.

The flying bird is done in a similar way, but with two wings, and I gave him a wider tail (he's coming in for a landing!).

Add dark brown or black straight stitches for the beak and feet.

And here's Arlene's whole block. Am I absolutely done with it? Time will tell....