, also known as dippy birds and dipping birds, are toy heat engines that mimic the motions of a bird drinking from a fountain or other water source. They are sometimes incorrectly considered a perpetual motion device.
The drinking bird was invented by Miles V. Sullivan and co-developed by George H. Shackley in 1945 and patented in 1946. He was a Ph.D. inventor-scientist at Bell labs in Murray Hill, NJ, USA. U.S. Patent 2,402,463. The patent was titled "Activated Amusement Device."
