Thought about these bird puppets that have the puppeteer looking as if he's riding the bird and is on stilts so the bird towers over a standing person. I googled and found Cirikli stilt birds. These may have been at EPCOT in Walt Disney World, a few years ago. If any of you saw them, that would be what I'm interested in.

My question is how is the neck and head of the bird controlled? Is it a simple matter of the weight of the head on the long neck sort of balancing itself and the reins held by the puppeteer controlling the movement, or is it much more complicated than that?

I guess something similar would be the T-Rex puppets that have had videos posted here. The type of control of the heads in those puppets would be similar.

Thanks,
Cruppetman

I think you are on the right track on how these are made. I would say that the neck ties into the body which is harnessed to the puppeteers body. An up and down pivot is at that point of the neck rod. Then at the top I would say the head is connected into the neck with a right to left pivot. The head can then be raised and lowered or look left and right by the puppeteer pulling on the reins.