Featured Any ideas on this little bird?

This is such a cute little bird. It is 1 5/8" tall and is carved from some type of bone or horn. There is some scrimshaw around the head and down the back. Any thoughts on what type of bird or where this might have come from? There are no markings of any kind.

 

A strange looking penguin?

 

What does the bottom look like? I'm wondering if it could be walrus tooth.

 

Cute !!! ... Joy.

 

Is the beak a separate piece?

 

Thanks for the replies to
wiscbirddog
Christmasjoy
Bronwen

I have posted 2 photos of the bottom.

 

I'd say likely ivory of some sort, Inuit or Inupiat from Alaska or Canada.

 

I love him, he's cute!

 

Yes, Eskimo/Inuit/Inupiat. Looks like walrus tusk, or perhaps fossilized mammoth - the photo of the bottom is a little too blurry to be sure.

 

This photo might be a little clearer

 

Interesting choice of animal if Inuit, since penguins don't naturally occur any further north than the Galapagos Islands.

 

More likely an arctic murre, "eaten by many Indigenous Peoples and reported to be a favoured traditional food wherever present across the Arctic".
http://traditionalanimalfoods.org/birds/seabirds/page.aspx?id=6485

 

Between the saw marks and the old glue (?) it is difficult to see the diagnostic traits. This is what you would look for on a cross section of walrus tusk:

(Courtesy of @komokwa and the National Forensic Fish and Wildlife Lab)

 

Courtesy Bronwen.

 

It is so adorable....