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Eggs

The SaviMade egg compendium: 4422 bird eggs, drawn at true relative size, with the measurements behind our 3D-printable eggs, the colours behind our egg posters, and where every number came from.

3D print any bird egg. Every egg in the compendium can be made into a 3D-printable model (an STL file) in our Egg Generator: pick the bird, check the size, and download a file ready for your slicer, for an FDM or resin printer. Use it for a nature table, a classroom, a museum display, decoy or replacement eggs for a collection, painting practice, or a set of eggs printed at true relative size. Each egg below has a Make a 3D-printable copy link that opens it there.

What this page is for. We built the compendium to show our sources. For each egg it lists where the length and width used for our 3D-printable models came from, and where the colour and markings used for our illustrated egg posters came from, so you can check them yourself.

Can’t find your egg? The collection doesn’t have every bird in the world yet. If you know your egg’s length and width, you can make it yourself in the Egg Generator: type in the measurements, adjust the shape until it matches, and download your own 3D-printable egg.

About this collection. 4,422 eggs, covering nearly every bird that nests in the Americas, from Canada and the United States through Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean to South America, plus a few famous eggs from elsewhere, like the Ostrich and the extinct Elephant Bird. Sizes come from published measurements wherever we found them; shapes and colours are our best estimates (how accurate these eggs are).

2,147 of them are marked Speculative: we haven't found documented descriptions or measurements of these eggs yet (for 133 of them, a source we checked reports the egg as undescribed), so they are estimated from their closest relatives. They are hidden unless you untick Hide speculative eggs. We keep adding sources and update the eggs as we go. Have you seen one of these eggs, or know a source? Message us.

Bird egg families

Albatrosses, petrels, gannets & penguins65 eggs · 25.8–119 mm long Antbirds237 eggs · 15.9–35.5 mm long Antpittas, antthrushes & tapaculos160 eggs · 19.9–39.1 mm long Auks, murres & puffins22 eggs · 39.5–124 mm long Blackbirds & orioles105 eggs · 19.7–38.1 mm long Cardinals & grosbeaks51 eggs · 17.8–30 mm long Chickadees, nuthatches & kinglets27 eggs · 13.3–25.9 mm long Cotingas, manakins & becards155 eggs · 14.7–56 mm long Crows, jays & magpies52 eggs · 26–49.5 mm long Cuckoos & roadrunners36 eggs · 19.9–43.2 mm long Ducks, geese & swans88 eggs · 45.8–114.5 mm long Falcons26 eggs · 35–63.4 mm long Finches & House Sparrow87 eggs · 12.8–26 mm long Flycatchers & kingbirds443 eggs · 13.8–32.3 mm long Gamebirds & poultry55 eggs · 29–70.1 mm long Guans, chachalacas & curassows55 eggs · 48.6–92.2 mm long Gulls, terns & jaegers62 eggs · 27.5–77.9 mm long Herons, ibises & storks45 eggs · 31–91.3 mm long Hummingbirds351 eggs · 10–17.5 mm long Kingfishers, motmots & todies25 eggs · 15.6–43.7 mm long Larks & swallows36 eggs · 16.6–24.5 mm long Loons & grebes19 eggs · 33.9–89 mm long Mockingbirds, catbirds & thrashers35 eggs · 23.2–32 mm long Nightjars & nighthawks54 eggs · 23.9–52.1 mm long Ostriches, emus & relatives7 eggs · 122.5–340 mm long Ovenbirds & woodcreepers311 eggs · 16.9–35.9 mm long Owls74 eggs · 26–56.4 mm long Parrots163 eggs · 17.5–57 mm long Pelicans & cormorants20 eggs · 52.5–90 mm long Pigeons & doves75 eggs · 20.1–43.7 mm long Puffbirds & jacamars54 eggs · 20.1–28.2 mm long Rails, coots & cranes65 eggs · 24.6–98.4 mm long Shorebirds84 eggs · 28.4–65 mm long Shrikes & vireos58 eggs · 17.4–26.7 mm long Sparrows, juncos & longspurs138 eggs · 17–29.2 mm long Swifts32 eggs · 16–32.6 mm long Tanagers & seedeaters396 eggs · 15.6–30 mm long Thrushes & bluebirds73 eggs · 19.1–36.1 mm long Tinamous46 eggs · 34.7–72.1 mm long Toucans & barbets52 eggs · 20.7–46 mm long Trogons32 eggs · 25.7–38.4 mm long Vultures, hawks & eagles80 eggs · 34.9–110.2 mm long Warblers116 eggs · 14.6–21.9 mm long Waxwings, starlings & pipits22 eggs · 17.3–31.9 mm long Woodpeckers125 eggs · 14.6–34.9 mm long Wrens & gnatcatchers108 eggs · 13.5–26.2 mm long

How accurate are these eggs?

We work hard to get these eggs right, but we can’t guarantee that any of them are accurate. Real eggs vary, even within one nest, and published figures vary between sources. How sure we are depends on the number:

  • Length and width: fairly confident. These come from published averages of measured eggs, and the source is given for every egg. Where no published average could be found (only a range or a rounded figure), the size is marked approx.; where no measurements at all could be found, it is estimated from related birds and marked estimated.
  • Diameter location and end roundness: less confident. These two numbers set the egg’s taper (where its widest point sits and how pointed the ends are). Sources rarely give them, so they’re estimated from the typical egg shape of the bird’s group (how the eggs are drawn).
  • Colours and markings: least confident. The illustrations follow written descriptions and, where we could find them, photos of real eggs. Each one shows a typical egg; the real eggs of many birds range widely in colour and pattern.
  • Speculative eggs. For some birds we haven't found a documented description or measurements of the egg yet. Usually the information exists somewhere and we just haven't found it; a few eggs are reported as undescribed in the sources we checked, and we say so. Rather than leave these eggs out, we estimate them from their closest relatives and label them Speculative. Treat them as a best guess: the estimates are updated as related birds' eggs are measured, and replaced as soon as we find a real source.

If you spot a mistake or have a better source, please let us know.

Using these illustrations

Use these egg illustrations any way you like, including in your own work and things you sell, as long as you clearly credit Savi Made wherever they are displayed, sold or used publicly. Print them, share them, put them on posters, cards or products, or use them in teaching and articles.

A credit like this is all we ask, shown with the picture: Egg illustration by Savi Made (savimade.ca). Online, please link it to savimade.ca. You can also read how the eggs are drawn or make a poster of any eggs you like.

How these eggs are drawn

Every egg here is drawn from four numbers. Two are measured: its length and its width, taken from published averages of real eggs, with the source given for each egg. The other two set the egg’s taper: how much wider one end is than the other, and how pointed the narrow end is. Published sources rarely give those, so they’re estimated from the typical shape of eggs in the bird’s group (plovers’ eggs are top-shaped, owls’ nearly round, and so on) and applied across that group. The same four numbers make the 3D-printable eggs and the poster outlines, so they all match.

The colours and markings in the illustrations follow each egg’s published description. Real eggs vary a lot, even within one nest; each illustration shows a typical egg.

The egg-shape formula

Every egg outline here comes from the egg-shape formula published by F. W. Preston in 1953, which he called the “standard avian egg-shape”. It is still regarded as one of the most accurate descriptions of the shape of birds’ eggs (Biggins et al. 2022). It uses four numbers:

  • Length (L): the egg from end to end, in mm.
  • Width (B): the egg across its widest part, in mm.
  • End roundness (D): how blunt or pointed the two ends are. Half the length gives a plain oval; a smaller number makes both ends more pointed, and a larger one makes them blunter, up to a capsule shape at the full length.
  • Diameter location (n): how much bigger one end is than the other. At 0 both ends are the same; higher numbers move the widest part towards the blunt end and taper the other end more. Most bird eggs are between about 0.5 and 3.

The outline is the egg’s radius r (half its width) at each point along its length:

r(t) = s · B⁄2 · √1 − t² · (1 + c1 t + c2 t²)

  • t is the position along the egg, from −1 at the pointed end to +1 at the blunt end (t = 2x / L, where x is the distance from the middle in mm).
  • c1 = n / 10 is Preston’s asymmetry term: it makes one end bigger than the other.
  • c2 = D / L − ½ is his “biconical” term: it blunts or sharpens both ends equally.
  • s scales the outline so that the widest part is exactly B.

With c1 and c2 both 0 the formula is a plain ellipse. The 3D egg is this outline spun around the egg’s long axis, and its volume is V = π∫r² dx, added up along the length.

Preston, F. W. (1953). The shapes of birds’ eggs. The Auk 70: 160–182.
Biggins, J. D., Montgomerie, R., Thompson, J. E. & Birkhead, T. R. (2022). Preston’s universal formula for avian egg shape. Ornithology 139(4): ukac028.

Every bird egg, A–Z

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