Beautiful Vintage Winter Bird Illustrations & Christmas Prints
From cheerful Christmas robins and colourful waxwings to snowy owls and delicate Japanese bird prints on frosty branches, this vintage winter bird collection is full of feathered beauties. Perfect for Christmas crafts, winter wall art and junk journals.
There's something lovely about spotting birds in winter, especially when the trees are bare, and their colourful feathers stand out against the frosty landscape. A robin perched on a snowy branch, a flock of waxwings feasting on winter berries or a snowy owl looking perfectly at home in the cold.
I've gathered together a collection of beautiful vintage winter bird illustrations, featuring some familiar Christmas favourites alongside birds from colder parts of the world. The collection includes colourful old natural history prints and gorgeous Japanese paintings of birds in snowy landscapes.
If you love seasonal nature illustrations, you might also enjoy my collections of vintage reindeer drawings and holly illustrations, both perfect for a little Christmas crafting.
How to Download the Birds
All the vintage bird images featured here are free to download and print. Click on the image title above the illustration you want. This will open a high-resolution version in a new tab, which you can then save to your computer or print.
The Winter and Christmas Bird Illustrations
Some birds have become almost as much a part of Christmas as holly, mistletoe and mince pies. The robin is probably the most obvious example in Britain, appearing on Christmas cards and decorations for generations.
The robin's Christmas connection is often traced back to Victorian postmen, who wore red uniforms and were nicknamed "robins". As Christmas cards became popular, illustrations of these red-coated postmen gradually gave way to pictures of the birds themselves.
But robins aren't the only birds that remind us of winter. Bullfinches bring a splash of pink and red to bare branches, while waxwings are famous for their silky feathers, elegant crests and appetite for winter berries.
Then there are the real cold-weather specialists, such as ptarmigans and snowy owls. Some change their plumage to blend in with the snow, while others are perfectly adapted to surviving freezing northern winters.
Illustration from W. Swaysland's Familiar Wild Birds, 1903.
Three European Robins (Erithacus rubecula) among leafy branches, hand-coloured plate from John Gould's The Birds of Europe (volume II).
Robin resting on a snowy branch beside sprays of red holly berries, vintage Christmas card chromolithograph.
Eurasian Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), a rose-red male above a brown female, clinging to a leafy bramble branch, from John Gould's The Birds of Europe.
Cardinals are popular Christmas birds in North America because their brilliant red feathers stand out beautifully against snowy winter landscapes, adding a cheerful splash of festive colour.
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), hand-coloured plate after Carl Wilhelm Hahn's Vögel aus Asien.
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) pair, a crimson male above a brownish female from Neltje Blanchan's Bird Neighbours: An Introductory Acquaintance.
Perched on a bare, weathered stump, illustration after Ann Lee.
A flock of winter finches, including Common Redpolls and goldfinches, feeding in the snow. From the 1914 publication Birds of New York, illustrated by renowned bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes
Waxwings are associated with winter because they arrive in Britain from northern Europe in search of food, particularly berries. Their beautiful crests, silky feathers and habit of gathering in flocks to feast on winter berries make them a lovely seasonal sight.
Bohemian Waxwing, illustrated by John Gerrard Keulemans (1902).
Print 10. Waxwing New Year Card
Pair of waxwings on a vintage Russian New Year Card.
Two Snowy Owls, one white adult and one heavily barred bird, perched on a branch. Plate by John Gould and Edward Lear from The Birds of Europe.
Plate from John Gould's The Birds of Great Britain.
American Ptarmigan and White-tailed Grouse in snowy terrain, Plate 418 of John James Audubon's The Birds of America.
Crows in a snowy winter landscape, illustration from Neltje Blanchan's Birds Worth Knowing.
Common pheasant cock bird in a snowy landscape, plate from John Gould's The Birds of Great Britain.
Pair of small munia/mannikin finches (Spermestes) perched on a flowering branch, vintage 'A Happy Christmas-tide' greeting card.
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), the 'Snow Bird', two birds on bare branches among seeds, plate from John James Audubon's The Birds of America. Dark-eyed juncos are affectionately known as snowbirds in North America, where their arrival in gardens often signals the approach of winter. These cheerful little grey-and-white birds are perfectly at home in chilly weather.
Birds 12 Days of Christmas
Birds have a starring role in the traditional Christmas song The Twelve Days of Christmas. There's the famous partridge in a pear tree, followed by two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, six geese a-laying and seven swans a-swimming.
Interestingly, the four calling birds were originally known as "colly birds", an old term for blackbirds. While you wouldn't necessarily associate all these birds with winter, the song has made them firm Christmas favourites.
Sorry I couldn't find one in a pair tree!. Barbary Partridge and Greek Partridge walking on open ground, plate from John Gould's The Birds of Europe (volume IV).
Plate from John Gould's The Birds of Great Britain.
Plate from the Iconographia Zoologica, University of Amsterdam.
French Hen is not a particular breed, but I found this poster which I think fits the brief.
Another breed of French hens, Faverolles, from Wright's book of poultry, 1912.
Print 23. Blackbird (calling birds)
The original lyric referred to four colly birds, meaning blackbirds, before the wording became "calling birds".
Common blackbird – J. G. Keulemans, 1869.
Barnacle Goose by Joseph Wolf and H.C. Richter.
Domestic (Mute) Swan plate from John Gould's The Birds of Europe (volume V).
Whistling (Tundra) Swan plate from John Gould's The Birds of Europe (volume V).
Penguins
Of course, we can't forget the penguin! These charming, waddling birds have become a Christmas card favourite, even though they live nowhere near the North Pole. If you're a fan of these feathered characters, I've got a whole collection of vintage penguin illustrations to explore on the blog.
By German wildlife artist Wilhelm Kuhnert depicts a 19th-century speculative reconstruction of the extinct New Zealand giant penguin (Pachydyptes ponderosus),
Beautiful Japanese Paintings of Birds in the Snow
The second part of this collection feels slightly different. Rather than scientific bird illustrations, these are beautiful paintings and Japanese woodblock prints showing birds in winter landscapes.
In traditional Japanese art, birds and flowers are a popular subject known as kachō-ga, meaning bird-and-flower pictures. Despite the name, these artworks often include trees, grasses, water and seasonal landscapes. Snowy branches and winter birds are particularly beautiful examples of this style.
Artists such as Ohara Koson captured these little moments in nature with wonderful simplicity. The delicate branches, soft snowy backgrounds and occasional flashes of bright feathers make the prints feel peaceful and distinctly wintry.
Another favourite is the Japanese red-crowned crane, often pictured standing in snow. These elegant birds have long been associated with good fortune and longevity in Japanese culture. I've collected more examples of this lovely style of artwork in my posts on Ohara Koson's bird prints and Kōno Bairei's Japanese birds and flowers.
Japanese ink painting of crows and a kite among snow-covered branches by Yosa Buson (Kitamura Museum collection).
Ohara Koson
Ohara Koson
Ohara Koson
Heron in the snow, Ohara Koson. The site has a collection of vintage heron prints.
Ohara Koson
Nagamachi Chikuseki.
Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige.
This isn't a Japanese woodblock print but a lithograph, 'Crow and Jackdaw' by Theo van Hoytema, 1903.
More Beautiful Vintage Bird Art
I hope you enjoy this collection of winter birds as much as I enjoyed putting it together. There's quite a contrast between the detailed natural history illustrations and the simple snowy Japanese scenes, but I think they work beautifully together.
If you're a fan of vintage bird art, there are plenty more feathered friends to explore on Pictureboxblue. Check out my vintage owl illustrations and the wider collection of bird prints, featuring everything from exotic parrots to familiar garden birds.
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