Royal Icing Bird in a Nest

After piping yesterday's teeny tiny little frog, I figured the time had finally arrived to tackle this bird in a nest in the Ateco Cake Decorating Reference Manual. As you can see, there aren't any instructions, other than tip #'s printed near it (and I definitely needed additional round tips other than #5!). 

You'll need a flower nail, a glue stick, parchment paper squares, a piping bag filled with white medium consistency royal icing, a #133 multi-hole tip, and round tips #8 and #2. You may also need a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch. 

 Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick.

Pipe a spiral of icing with the #133 tip. Slide this square off the nail and stick another square to it. 

 Pipe an elongated bead with the tip #8; start by holding the tip perpendicular to and just above the surface. Squeeze, and when a bead builds up, move the tip to a 45 degree angle while continuing to squeeze, then stop pressure and pull the tip away to form the bird's body.

 Allow the body to dry for a while (15 minutes or so) then pipe the round bead that is the head. Hold the tip just above the round end of the body…

 …squeeze out a bead, then stop the pressure and slide the tip off the bead with a "shaving" motion to keep the bead smooth. If a peak forms, touch a finger to the dusting pouch and tap it down.

 Pipe the wings in a similar fashion to the body. They should attach to the body for about the first half of the wing's length…

 …then pull the tip away at an upward angle to give the wings some lift.

 Switch the tip to the round #2, then pipe the beak (which is a very small elongated bead, like the body).

 Finally, pipe the eyes, which are two tiny dots.

 When the bird is dry, attach it to the nest with a bead of icing. You could, of course, pipe it in various colors and even give it a sheen with a product like Pearl Dust.