Begin by clearing a place to work. If you've washed the working surface, make sure it's thoroughly dry. Starting off with soggy origami paper would be inauspicious.

• Place your paper so that the prettiest side faces down. (This will give your bird a plain body, but fancy head, neck and wings.) You'll be doing mountain fold and valley folds in origami--see Keywords for more info.

  

• Mountain fold your square along a diagonal and then unfold it, leaving it flat. The plain side should still face up. Now orient the square as a diamond, with the crease line running from top to bottom. Use a pencil to label very lightly the left corner as A. Label the right corner as B.

• Fold corners A and B, so they meet in the center of your diamond. Crease these folds with a fingernail or a ruler, checking to make sure the new corner you form at the top remains neat. You can label that corner C, if you like.