The Happy Drinking Bird

When I was a kid, I remember staring for hours in fascination at an amazing creation that belonged to the next-door neighbor: the dippy bird. That little guy would just keep dipping down into a cup of water, going slower and slower, then suddenly faster. It just wouldn't stop! Amazing stuff for a four-year-old to see.

You've no doubt seen them too. It's a fascinating little piece of kitsch that is at the same time tacky and irresistible. Today's FamilyFirst site celebrates the dippy bird, aka the drinking duck or drinking bird.

And there is lots of info on the endlessly tippling little avian. For instance, did you know that the drinking bird first appeared about 1946, it is believed? In that year, a Miles B. Sullivan obtained patent protection for a drinking bird device. The website's author asks for anyone who spotted one prior to that year to come forward and be recognized.

It also explains why the birds are largely just a memory. Most of us have seen them, but not recently,right? Well, it turns out that the brightly colored liquid inside (red, in the case of one I owned long ago) is poisonous and flammable! That fragile glass that holds this nasty substance in was easily broken, too. Hey, can you spell l-i-t-i-g-a-t-i-o-n?

There are lots of pics of the webmaster's own dippy bird collection, too. There's even a dippy giraffe! And don't miss the birdcam, showing a bird doing his thing in an English country garden.

Click here

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