Vulture Lawn Flamingos

These easy to make decorations are a great halloween twist on the classic lawn flamingo. Group them on your lawn with a skeleton for fun, creepy decor!

Fun fact: A group of vultures around a carcass is called a wake.

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• Inexpensive lawn flamingos - small ones have 19" legs or larger have 34" legs - these small ones came from the Dollar Tree, also available in many places online. You can get the cheap ones since you will be painting them
• aluminum foil or painters tape to protect bills from paint
• black spray paint (make sure the can says it can paint plastic)
• red spray paint (make sure the can says it will stick to plastic)
• faux fur trim or piece - either white or another natural looking color, like tan - you will need about a 1 inch by 5 inch strip for each flamingo, available most craft stores
• glue gun and glue sticks
• scissors
• newspaper to protect your surface when spray painting
• sharpies or paint pens to fix painting mistakes
• Optional - skeleton for your flamingo vultures to group around - snake skeleton found at Target

1. Cover the yellow and black tips of the bills with aluminum foil or blue painters tape.
2. Cover the eyes with a small piece of painters tape. Or correct this later with a sharpie or paint pen.

1. Safety first - use spray paint in a well ventilated area or outdoors
2. Protect your surface with newspaper or other covering.
3. Lay the flamingos down flat.
4. Spray one side with black spray paint. Allow to dry.
5. Flip birds over and spray the other side with black spray paint, allow to dry. You may need a couple coats for good coverage.
6. Carefully spray just the necks with red spray paint. To get a more precise line you could use painters tape to mark the end of the neck, or shield the body with paper while spraying.
7. Paint both sides of the neck red and allow to dry. A couple coats may be needed.

1. Using scissors cut strips of white or natural colored fur that go completely around the base of the neck of your birds. The strips should be between 1/2-2 inches wide and probably at least 5 inches long. Try different sizes to see what you like best.

2. Use a hot glue gun to attach the faux fur ruff to the base of the neck. Glue the flat backside of the fur to the plastic of the bird so the fluffy side is facing out. The fur should hide the join between the red and black parts of your birds.

3. If you have any mistakes or accidentally painted over the eyes, use a sharpie or paint pen to re-draw eyes or fix painting mistakes.

1. Find the metal stick legs that came with the flamingos and insert them through the holes on the underside of your birds.

2. Either make a skeleton or carcass using some of the other fine instructables on this site, or purchase one from the halloween decor section of your local store.

3. Pose your vultures around the carcass or skeleton to make a wake.