European Goldfinch - BLENDER
BLENDER 5.0
FBX
GLTF
OBJ

The feathers are geometry so they render fast and no plugins are needed.

This model comes with several pre-animated scenes to get you started.

The wings are animated using the 3 bones within each. The wings are folded using one of several Shape Keys.

You can also make adjustments, like spreading the wing tip feathers and spreading the tail using Shape Keys.

The main controlling object is the "ROOT" bone

'EGF-ZERO' is the name given to my BASIC set up, no animation, but it is rigged.

I have provided several scene files to get you started:
EGF-FlyLoop
EGF-LandTakeOff

The feet and legs are controlled by "LT-FootController" and "RT-FootController" respectively

There are two 'neck' bones, a 'head' bone and a 'lower beak' bone.

There are 23 Shape Keys.

The wings are controlled by 3 bones each
and have 10 Morph positions, including flapping and folded positions

WingFold-01
WingFold-02
WingFold-03
WingFold-06
WingFold-06b
WingTIpsDown
WingTIpsSpread-01
WingTIpsSpread-02
WingTIpsSpread-03

The Tail spread is controlled via Shape Key TailClosed, the Tail bone controls position and rotation.

The eyes have several Shape Keys:
EyeBrowsMUP-LT
EyeBrowsMUP-RT
EyelidsClosed

The toes are controlled by 12 bones on each foot.

To fold the wings use the morphs noted above.

But if you have positioned the wings by moving the bones, AND you try to use Shape Keys to fold them, you WILL have some pretty weird distortions that will freak you out.

Don't panic, the solution is to 'zero' out your wing bone positions, as or just before you apply the 'Morph' targets.

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European Gold Finch:
Real Geometry:
17562 vertices
12305 polygons

Youtube Samples:
Turn Table Goldfinch HI: https://youtu.be/TyjPrV1KsKk
EFG TT Color: https://youtu.be/tJdPDfkMiRE
EGF Anim Grey LOW: https://studio.youtube.com/video/uEaXV5Qb8vM/edit
EGF ANim Grey High: https://youtu.be/uEaXV5Qb8vM
EGF Anim Color: https://youtu.be/LEeqUdGC0ms