This ancestor has a slightly curved head that ends with a pointed beak. It has one nodular eye on the right side of its face. Its short neck is connected to a slightly ridged back and body, and it has a short, upturned tail. It does not have feet and appears to rest comfortably on its trapezoidal and convex base, although it is slightly raised under the tail. This ancestor is light and dark gray, with sandy spotting across its body. It is perforated at both ends; however, the front perforation broke and has left a split in this ancestor. There are multiple scratches and chips on this birdstone potentially from use, with the most notable being on its head, back, and on the side of its tail. There are notches on the top of the head, on the back and on the right side of the tail. Currently, this ancestor resides at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

The term birdstone is a legacy of earlier archaeological work and does not consider the full variety in shape and functionality these relatives may have had within Indigenous communities. We invite Great Lakes nations to help us improve our understanding of how to identify and name these relatives. Birdstones have been found and collected from various contexts including hearths inside houses, in fields, and burial contexts. To the best of our knowledge, none of the birdstones in GRASAC’s Knowledge Sharing Platform come from burial contexts.

It is difficult to know the cultural origin of this ancestor due to the unknown context of its collection, its age and the fact that birdstones have been found throughout the American northeast. It may have travelled long distances.

Information from this entry comes from the ROM's catalogue alongside Dr. Tiziana Gallo's research on Birdstones.