This ancestor has a pointed beak, angular fan-shaped tail, and a trapezoidal base that is perforated at both ends. Medium grey in colour with thin black laminations, this birdstone has a flat base and a long body with a raised head and tail. The eyes are protruding stemmed discs and the right eye has concentric circles formed by the stone’s laminations. This ancestor’s beak appears to have broken at the neck angle and to have been reshaped. Scars and striations are present on the base of the birdstone, and there are many scars on the top neck slope, as well as minor scratches along the body. 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, making its origin unknown.

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

Royal Ontario Museum records list Nipissing, Ontario - it is unclear to GRASAC where in the region the birdstone was found.