Bird Carving As a Specialty in Wood Carving

Today in the world of specialization we no longer regard someone as a medical doctor, but as a pediatrician or allergist or some other form of specialization in the medical field. This holds true for many professions, trades and other aspects of our world today. Specialization also holds true for the arts and crafts in general and for the woodcarving or sculpturing art in particular. Those that specialize in carving fish belong to the National Fish Carvers Guild and a number of other organizations cater specifically for fish carvers.

Similarly some woodcarvers do nothing but carve birds and no other objects or figures. The premier magazine for the bird carving fraternity is the Wildfowl Carving Magazine. Many bird carvers belong to bird carving groups and organizations such as the International Wildfowl Carvers Association and others. Even those that carve birds are divided in sub specialties, such as, stylized bird carvers, who visualize a bird in the shape and grain of a piece of wood. Another group is decoy carvers, who duplicate ducks, shorebirds and seabirds for the purpose of using them to lure birds to hunting blinds for sport hunting. Most decoy carvers today, however, carve their decoys for competition and decoration.

One of the specialized areas in bird carving, is the creation of realistic life size birds. Both the detail and colors of the plumage are replicated as close to reality as possible. As a matter of fact, some of the experts in this area of carving are able to create wooden masterpieces that is difficult to distinguish from the real bird.

I have spent numerous hours for the past seventeen years to create lifelike creations of birds in wood. Through many hours of practice on my own and tutoring by the masters, I have learned that the most important factor in this carving process, is to simulate every detail of the feathers of the bird. Secondly, painting a carved bird realistically can transform, a below par carving, into a finished product that is worthy of admiration.

In my article on **Carving Realistic Bird Feathers in Wood** I have outlined the carving process used by me and many other bird carvers to create realistic looking birds. I encourage you to look at bird photos in any of the resources referred to above to appreciate the art of bird carving.