I fell into collecting figural bird whistles and ocarinas by accident.  I blame Anita.  What happened was this:

 My first whistle was a Keel-Billed Toucan that I bought in Belize City for myself and two of mi compañeras en aventura to commemorate our first sight of the bird the day before, on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala.  I'd not bought one for Anita, as she only tolerates our birding, albeit graciously. (She rolls her eyes at us though.)  I then felt guilty that I'd not got one for her, so found a cute toucan on the Montessori website.  By then I'd discovered that the little Keel-Billed (exactly painted, just like the real thing) had a fingering hole, so I could make him warble. I bought TWO toucans --  ocarinas --  and found I could make a whole bunch more notes. THEN I bought a penguin ocarina, and discovered that I can actually PLAY these things. 

Below you will find a description of my adventures into the world of vessel flutes, and a catalog of my nascient collection.  They have charmed me, and lightened my heart:  perhaps they will do the same for you.

NOTE:  I intend to post a .wav of each piece's call, so you can hear the tone.  Look for it in the coming weeks...