A Completely Brilliant Piece of Design

This wooden bird is much more clever than it first appears.

Every now and then I encounter a piece of design that’s so ingenious, so delightful, that I can’t stop marveling over it. The little wooden bird shown above is the latest example.

Until recently, the bird belonged to my girlfriend, E. She was planning to sell it in a moving sale that she had in June, but I spotted it in the “To sell” pile and told her I’d take it. (Oddly, I’d never noticed the bird in E’s home prior to that. Like me, she has a lot of stuff, so it’s easy to overlook things.)

Why do I love this bird so much? I’ve provided an explainer in this video: