Steam Punk Singing Bird

My idea was to use found objects and a shop brought singing bird mec to produce a singing bird in a cage similar to the old Victorian type but with a modern twist. I purchased the bird mec from here http://hobby.uk.com/battery-powered-singing-bird.html . It runs off a small battery and has a horizontal moving lever which is syncronised to the bird song that it produces. The bird song is made by two bellows and it is powered by a small electric motor 

the base was made from a tin can which I roughed up on the belt sander (later it would be rusted using sea water).
I drilled on large hole to let the sound out, bolted in the bird mec and added a switch. I also made a mesh grill to cover the large hole. 
Then I added some metal legs from some old alarm clock and mounted a plastic battery holder underneath. 

Next I made a velvet cushion for the top of the base. I also made the cage.This was built on a jig and is made frome galvanised fencing wire and joined using soft solder. I use a small flame gun to melt the solder and plenty of flux,

Then I cut the parts for the birds body. I used a wood that was light in weight and close grained (I would write jelloutong but I can't spell it)
I used alluminium for the tail and wings as it is also light in weight.
Then I covered parts of the bird in rubber,cut  from old inner tubes, and superglued in place. The neck and legs were painted using acrylics, and small clock parts were added.   

Next I rusted all of the metal parts using local sea water and glued an acrylic ball onto the toggle switch.

A metal rod rests on the moving flap on the bird song mech. It passes up through the birds leg (which is glued into the base) and is glued into the birds body. The leg is a very loose fit into the body so the body moves up and down but the leg stays fixed.
Another metal rod is glued into the top of the birds head.It passes freely through a hole in the lower part of the birds head and down through the neck to rest on the base.
So, as the body lowers, the top part of head appears to lift, and as the body rises, it appears to fall. As all of this in in sync to the birdsong,the bird appears to be singing. A small rod at the front of the beak stops the head from twisting.
The wings are fixed to the body by hinges, but supported in the middle by the two rods. As the body lifts, the wings lower and as the body falls, the wings lift.
 

Once the bird was working ok, I fitted the cage, but did not glue it as It may need to be removed in the future to make repairs.
You can see a video of the automata here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gximsnlnmxg
Later I made two larger Steampunk Singing Birds for the Tallin Puppet Theatre,in Estonia. Youcan see a video of one of them here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNKJOfqqnpE