Birds are the focus of my work. Since they fly and we cannot, they and their feathers are symbols of our aspirations. They have meaning for us. Plus, since birds can fly and escape, they aren't afraid to show themselves, unlike, for instance, mice. So they are eminently observable.
I haven't usually carved people into my creations. This is because we tend to focus only on ourselves when thinking about this world, to the exclusion of other creatures. So I like to give birds a voice.
However birds represent some of our actual, mythical, environmental, and personal connections to the world. So I have begun to explore this relationship using human-ish silhouettes. When drawing people figures, it struck me how much we consist of long arms and legs plus big hands and a round head--like stick figures. I wonder if that is how other creatures may initially see us.