Page 13 - Black Range Naturalist, Vol. 3, No. 1

Frog (based on legs and eye placement) on a bowl in the Luna Mimbres Museum in Deming, New Mexico, (above) and at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico (below).

Brody (p. 179) found that just over 20% of Mimbres pottery images were of birds, like the stylized quail from the first page of this article or the swallows - or swifts - which follow.
If I may use a birding term - the jizz of these birds simply screams “swallow”. A bowl at the Maxwell Museum.
Jet bird effigy from the Mattocks Site (1100-1150 CE). Appears to be an amulet. Photographed at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.
The inspiration for these birds may have been the Great-tailed Grackles of this general region or a species much farther away.
Macaw images are an excellent example of the multiplicity of inspiration and/or message. Many people have studied the macaw trade which existed between Mesoamerica and the southwestern portion of the United States. Two species of macaw have been found in the Mimbres archaeological record, the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and the Military Macaw (Ara militaris). These species have long brightly colored tail feathers which were used in religious ceremonies by many of the early peoples of the southwest. The remains of a third large species, the Thick-billed Parrot (Rhynochopsitta pachyrhyncha), is also found in the area. It is not possible to determine the species of macaw from the
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