Hood ornament has me stumped. Heron? Stork? Pterodactyl?

I bought a few at auction. Two I have ID'd. This last one has me stymied. It came all painted up, and thus I dubbed it the Technicolor Pterodactyl. Or... the Pride Pigeon.


I unmasked it with the help of Aircraft Remover, and it looks much more serious now...




But I can't for the life of me find any references to it other than a couple several-year-old auction sites that were selling broken or modified version. They called it a stork, but no further info was given.

I even uploaded the picture and let google do it's magic image search, but that just gave me a bunch of other bird hood ornaments. Nothing that matched.

Cadillac Heron looks vaguely similar... but that's about as close as I've come.

 

This one was on eBay and was called the pelican. Claimed, after market from the 30s.

 

Interesting. Very similar, yet the base is totally different. The base on mine is the same shape as my 34 chevy ornament/radiator cap.

EDIT: looking closer, I can see where the base is removable. Looks like the same mold even... on the pic you posted there is a line near the base of the wing that could almost be taken for a crack. Mine has the same marking.

 

Timber that looks like a Dragon and has a crest on the skull that is absent from the others.

 

I believe it is a aftermarket piece, most of the high end cars at that time that had the ornate hood ornaments like the stork had the wings down or spread out, what you have is a cool piece but I don't think it was installed on a factory built luxury automobile. HRP

 

Pretty sure that is aftermarket, but based on the Packard hood ornament. BTW , the Packard bird is a Cormorant… not a Pelican.

 

That’s probably why the after market maker called it a pelican.

 

You have an excellent resource in nearby Gilmore Museum. They have an entire building on their grounds exclusively for their hood ornament display.
Highly recommend.

 

Not real sure what it is other than bad ***.