Originally hand-crafted with bricks from a wide variety of LEGO sets, LEGO fan and bird enthusiast Thomas Poulsom pieced together a series of beautiful British birds as a tribute to the natural world that he wants to bring more attention to. After making this video, a few of his bird models gained support on LEGO Ideas and are now available at LEGO and at Amazon.com.

But you don’t need to buy the set to make your own British birds… or any birds! Poulsom simply used his imagination and the bricks he had on hand to make the originals. Some bird images for reference might also help. In an interview, he explains how his bird creations were first inspired by a feathered friend:

I have always loved nature and being a tree surgeon and gardener I get a lot of inspiration from my job. I was digging a vegetable patch one day and during a quick break I noticed a Robin land on my fork handle. This was the inspiration behind “Bobby the Robin“. I built him that evening and enjoyed building this bird so much that I decided to build some of my favorite birds from Europe. Once I had built seven birds I posted one a day on Flickr. They were a hit!

Poulsom has been building with LEGO since he was five years old and has a huge collection, including original North American birds, Tropical birds…

…and wonderfully unusual birds like the incredibly rare kakapo, a flightless creature previously seen on this site. What will you build with your bricks?