This wonderful creature, found very close to home this week, completely won my heart, and the more time I spend with it, the more tender and lovely I find it. With black painted head and split tail, I assume it represents a swallow of some type, or perhaps a tern, and the petrified wood base (the absolute perfect base) definitely points to shorebird. The wings were separately carved then attached by pin, with one of them loose and easy to remove and then reposition in place--it will stay on fine, but has a little wiggle and a tiny gap between it and the body. The tip of that wing shows a little loss, and there is surely some softening to the tip of the beak, too, but the wood has such a great dry patina to it, and the whole thing such a soulful and warm presence, I think none of that really matters. Really charming all the way around and quite a special feeling one, signed Adams on the underside of the base, with subtle black silhouette of a duck just above, which I'd guess was rendered using a stencil.
7 1/2" wingspan; 4 3/4" t x 3 9/16 w (at base). Worn and with losses as described and documented, but stable and not very fragile. Attached to the base by wire post, it can bet gently rotated a bit in relation to the base if/as desired/