Northern Cardinal
The North American Cardinal is indigenous to the Americas and 7 States use it as their state bird, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginian and West Virginia.

Native Americans have been seen harbingers of either good or bad news.
The Cherokee say the Cardinal can foretell visitor's arrival, conversely the bird is though to carry the souls of the dead. Some believe it forecasts rains are coming and can foretell the weather.

The Ojibwe people see the Cardinal as a Guardian.

The Akimel O'odham people also see the cardinal as a predictor of rain and is associated with thunder and rain as well as a bringer of luck.

Rigged and animated for:
BLENDER 5.1
Alembic
GLTF
FBX
OBJ - includes base object and all morph taraget objs

All Quad Geometry
All models come 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 morph targets.
You can also make adjustments, like spreading the wing tip feathers and spreading the tail using morph targets.
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The main controlling object is the "ROOT" bone

I have provided several scene files to get you started:
Take-Off and Land
Fly loop

The feet and legs are controlled by "LT-Foot" and "RT-Foot" respectively. (Lightwave)
The feet and legs are controlled by "LT-FootControl" and "RT-FootControl" respectively. (Max)

There are 2 'neck' bones, a 'head' bone and a 'lower beak' bone.

There are 23 Morph targets.

The 'Mouth' phonemes are controlled by 9 Morph targets:
located when you select the Cardinal mesh and go to "Object" => "Properties" => "Deform" (Lightwave)
located when you select the Cardinal mesh and go to "Modify" => "Morpher" (Max)

But the mouth can be opened and closed with a bone as well.

The wings are controlled by 3 bones each
and have 1 Morph position, to spread the wing tips and 5 morph positions to fold the wing

The Tail spread is controlled via Morph target "TailOpened", the Tail bone controls position and rotation.

The toes are controlled by 12 bones on each foot.

To fold the wings use WingFold_06 or WingFold_09.

But if you have positioned the wings by moving the bones, AND you try to use morph targets 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.

Morphs: AI, CDGJKNSTYZ, E, F, LT, MBP, O, U, WQ, Body-Flight, Budy-Puffed 1a, Body Puffed 2a, Crest1, Crest2, Crest3, EyelidsOpened, TailClosed, TailOpened, WingFold_06, WingFold_09, WingTipsDN, WingTIpSpread_01, WingTipSpread_02

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The model is made hi resolution by using Sub-Patching, so the actual geometry is much less than the rendered geometry.

LIGHTWAVE:
Cardinala:
20775 verticies
13988 polygons

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MAX:
Cardinal:
20903 verticies
13988 polygons

the maps are RGB or greyscale, 72dpi, 4096px X 4096px

Cardinal Morphs - https://youtu.be/nEt9XaSHtpM
TurnTable Wire - https://youtu.be/620VN7fnKiw
TurnTable Wire Low - https://youtu.be/ukxY1dYGt_k
TurnTable Color - https://youtu.be/Px8G1OLrEj8
Fly-Loop - https://youtu.be/PU78Tv1N1Q8
Morphs - https://youtu.be/Gk7J18X9wws
Land Take Off - https://youtu.be/AnpAMB_cbFI