Cruppetman,
Those are some questions I haven't answered yet.  It will be blacklight so the rods etc will be blacked out and won't matter.  I haven't decided how many puppeteers, which is one reason I thought of having multiple puppets on one controller so I can have other puppeteers do other things.  We have a team of 12-15 but they all need to be in different places at once! LOL It's hard to figure out all the things I want to do!

Hard to explain things without drawings, but I'll try. Make an odd number of birds (3, 5 or 7). Each one should have a dowel rod, painted black, that has the body connected to the top. On your mast cross bar (where the sail would hang from) attach a short piece of PVC pipe where you want the birds to be. Drop the bird dowel down thru this pipe. Make sure you've put some kind of band near the bird's body so the dowel stops before the body hits the top of the PVC ring. This will allow your puppeteer to turn the rod making the bird move, side to side.

If you use the method I previously posted about the fishing line attached to the rod to make all the mouths move in unison, one puppeteer should be able to open the mouths with one hand while turning the body rods of various birds with the other, or have one puppeteer handle the mouths and another give some movement to the birds.

I know it might sound confusing, but you should be able to figure it out. If you're totally lost, email me.

Cruppetman

I think I understand.  Not sure if I can actually do that yet.  It really depends on how the ship is made.  One step at a time.

Okay, I want to revisit this topic.  I have not made these yet and had so many ideas swimming around in my mind I couldn't cement just one and so had almost given up.  My son and I talked about several different ways to do this, and there are so many!  But I settled on what I think will work for me given my materials, time and abilities. (Meaning, I already have the stuff and not much time to do it! LOL)

I will make 3 birds facing frontward, using the Finding Nemo seabirds  http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f48/Hel380/mine.jpg  for inspiration. I will make them with foam core backing for stability, polyfoam over the front, covered with white fabric and some white feathers for added layer/texture.  The feet will be mounted on the ship mast, or rope or wherever we decide to put them.  One puppeteer will work the beak of the middle bird and the other two beaks will be connected with a small black dowel, not sure exactly what I will use, but something light and stiff. So when the puppeteer sings and sways the middle bird they will all sing and sway.

Does this make sense?  Do you think it will work?

Check out my gallery (cruppetman) to see how I connected the mouths of all the heads on my choir wall.

Not sure if you will get any swaying movement with the description you gave. Not flexable enough. Try attaching a pvc pipe to the back of the bird. Drop this pipe through an opening in the ship mast so you can turn the bird easily. Connect these with some type of dowel rod or another pvc pipe so when you turn the center bird the others will also turn.

With this setup and the beaks connected, one puppeteer can control all three mouths and swaying motions.

It's hard to try to explain this in a message. Hope this didn't totally confuse you.

cruppetman

I think I see how you did the heads, with the wires running down, but not a clear picture on the white bar and white rings.  So does each wire from each head get a ring, and then the ring is slid onto the bar?  Then when you pull the bar all the puppets work? Also looking at the pic of the mouth, does the bar being pulled open or close the mouths?

As far as the swaying for the birds, I planned to glue the feet down and use a short fabric tube for the legs.  The bodies would not actually be connected to the pvc or whatever I connect them to. But, I'm thinking the bodies might need a dowel, or bar across the back that the puppeteer can hold with their second hand to move them and keep them stable.  I'm going to experiment with it as soon as I can.

Angel,
I think you are heading in the right direction. What you wrote makes sense to me and give me a picture of what they would be in my head.