[MOC] Traditional Ninjago Bird Fisherman

[greg3]

Despite what you see on telly, the land of Ninjago is more than just ninja, mechs and dragons. Among its rich heritage of customs and traditions is the ancient art of bird fishing.

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

This traditional skill involves the use of trained birds to catch fish. The birds in question are fitted with a band around their neck that prevents them swallowing large fish, instead they are trained to deposit their catch on their handler's boat. The bird most often used is the rare "yellow footed snow cormorant" found only on the most Northern islands of Ninjago...

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

 

Here you can clearly see the bands around the bird's neck...

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

 

In recent years, the practise has come under threat from more modern fishing methods but it still lives on in the more remote areas and steps are being taken to train the next generation of bird fishermen in order to keep this piece of history alive.

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

I had the idea for this after watching a program about real life bird fishing (mainly practised in China and Japan) and originally planned to use the boat from the Jelly Sub set but a bit of googling led to me this simple raft design. The bird design doesn't really match a real bird - hence the made up species (found only in Ninjago!!) 

Thanks for looking... comments are always welcome. 

By the way, what is the proper adjective for something/someone from Ninjago? Ninjagoese? Ninjagoean? Ninjagan? 

Edited November 1, 2017 by greg3

[kage28]

This is a real thing in China, though the days of this ancient way of fishing are probably numbered.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2017 by kage28

[iammac]

A creative idea. But where are the fish that hunt for birds?  You've done a good job making brick-built birds that aren't horrible like some found in sets (cough, cough Creator cough)

Does anybody actually keep those birds up, or am I the only one who moves the pieces straight from the polybag to the parts drawer?

 

MAC

[beverly888]

Really like how you built your fishing cormorants.  Imaginative.