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How to fold an origami hoopoe

An orange long diamond with a slim head flap: reverse folds raise the head and swing out the long thin bill. Tapered pleats fan out the crest; a black strip folds into the wing and pointed tail.

You need: Orange squares of 15 cm and 6.5 cm and a black strip 2.2 × 11 cm, all white on the back; a grey strip 1 × 6.5 cm; scissors, glue, pens. Hard, 25 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Crease the diagonal. Orange square, white side up, turned like a diamond. Fold the left corner to the right corner, crease, and unfold.
  2. Make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in to lie along the centre crease.
  3. Long diamond. Fold the two upper edges in to the centre crease too, making a long diamond with a point at each end.
  4. Slim the bottom. Fold the two lower edges in to the centre crease once more, so the bottom point is long and very thin.
  5. Turn it over. Flip it over.
  6. Head flap. Fold the thin bottom point up on a crease 2.6 cm below the side corners. This flap becomes the head and bill.
  7. Fold in half. Mountain-fold it in half along the centre crease, the flap on the outside.
  8. Lay it down. Turn it so the long fold is at the bottom and the flap's fold is on the right.
  9. Pull up the head. Outside-reverse-fold the flap up and out, starting the crease at the bottom of its fold, so it stands up leaning forward.
  10. Long bill. 2.6 cm up the front, outside-reverse-fold the rest forward and a little down: the long thin bill.
  11. Tail end. Outside-reverse-fold the left point back over itself, 6 cm from its tip, so the body is short and plump.
  12. Tip it up. Tilt the bird so its head is higher than its tail.
  13. Crest: new sheet. Set the body aside. Cut the small orange square into a fan 3.2 cm round one corner, a bit more than half a circle. Orange side up.
  14. Crest: pleat in. Fold the left part of the fan over on a crease from the corner, a quarter of the way round from the left edge.
  15. Crest: pleat out. Fold it back out on a crease from the corner a little further round. The left side of the fan rises.
  16. Crest: pleat in. Make the same pleat on the right: fold the right part over on a crease from the corner, a quarter of the way from the right edge.
  17. Crest: pleat out. Fold it back out a little further round. Now the crest is a pleated fan standing up.
  18. Wing: new sheet. Set the crest aside. Take the black strip, black side up, lying along the back from the shoulder.
  19. Wing: in half. Fold the top half of the strip behind along its length, so it is black on both sides with the fold along the top.
  20. Wing: pointed tail. Fold the bottom corner of the far end behind on a slant, from 3.5 cm before the end up to the top fold: a long pointed tail.
  21. Legs: new sheet. Set the wing aside. Take the grey strip, standing tall.
  22. Fold the strip. Fold it in half lengthwise, the right edge over onto the left edge, so it is coloured on both sides.
  23. Two legs. Fold the top half down on a slanted crease across the middle, so it swings out ahead: one leg stepping forward.
  24. Feet. Fold the last 0.8 cm of each leg forward along the ground.
  25. Put it together. Glue the legs behind the belly, the fan behind the back of the head so it stands up, and the barred wing along the back.

Hoop-hoop-hoop!

Ink the crest's rim black with a white band below it, draw white bars across the wing and a dark eye just behind the bill.

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