The Bird Base is one of the most iconic bases, and is a fundamental starting point for a lot of models. It is considered a more “intermediate” level of base, and it is used for all sorts of models, including Birds, Dragons and a whole host of other winged creatures.
It builds upon a Square base, adding petal folds to produce a base consisting of four distinct points that can be used for wings, heads, and tails.
The key with any base is to take your time to line up the folds and ensure they’re accurate. Minor misalignments in a base can be magnified in a finished model.
Diagrams
1Start with a square of paper, white side up, and perform a valley fold from corner to corner
2Valley fold the paper in half corner to corner, then unfold this
3Perform a squash fold to create a square
4Turn the paper over
5Perform another squash fold to finish a Square base
6Fold along both angle bisectors towards the centre crease
7Unfold the previous step
8Fold and unfold the top corner down towards the centre of the model, using the creases you just created as a guide
9Perform a Petal fold using the creases you have just created
10Turn the paper over
11We're now going to repeat the previous steps. Fold and unfold the angle bisectors
12Fold and unfold the top corner down towards the centre of the model
13Perform a petal fold using the creases you've just made
