What's that bird in the background?

The background bird is a Hoopoe. It is found in much of Europe, Asia, and Africa and is the national bird of Israel. 

The unusual crest and delicate beak made it a challenge to carve.

  The bird is carved from basswood and the base is butternut.

My Blue Ribbon Winner from the World Championship

This year I entered the World Championship of Bird Carving and won a Blue Ribbon in Advanced  Songbirds with this Variegated Fairy-wren. The Championship is sponsored  by the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Maryland.

      I enjoyed carving this bird because of it's spirited pose and beautiful colors. The bird and rock are both carved from basswood.

        Variegated Fairy-wrens are highly sociable birds found throughout most of Australia.

Welcome to my workshop

This is my first post and I thought you'd like to see a bird carving evolve from rough cut wood to finished bird caving. My video Chickadee Evolution shows the progression. It does take a little longer to carve than the 2 minutes in the video. Well, a lot longer.

                                          Chickadee Evolution