Free bird SVG files

Legs, beaks and wire: the thin parts of a bird

A bird in profile is a solid, forgiving shape with three delicate parts: the beak, the legs and whatever it stands on. On the songbird on a branch the legs are a little over 2 mm wide at the 100 mm width of the file, and the branch is 4 to 5 mm thick. That cuts cleanly in vinyl and card at half size. For 3 mm plywood keep the perched birds at 100 mm or more, or choose the flying bird, the swallow or the simple round bird, which have no thin legs or wire to break.

Birds on a wire is the odd one out: it is 100 mm long but under 20 mm tall, so it wants a long strip of material and looks best at 300 mm or more across a shelf edge or a mantel. The wire sags a little, as a real one does, so line it up by its two ends.

Which way the bird faces

Every single bird here faces right. To make one face left, mirror it in your cutting software before you cut; nothing in the drawing is lettered, so a mirrored bird is just as correct. A bird looks most natural facing into the page, towards your text or the middle of the card, with its tail to the edge.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions