Those of you familiar with a traditional crane (Tsuru) will notice this one is a little odd – that is because it is folded on top of/inside a flapping bird:

This is an ingenious and complicated fold, for bi-colour paper that cleverly interweaves one model in the other. In the 3D photo below you can see the flapping action more completely – this model moves!

I realised I had never folded a traditional flapping bird, so this was a bit of a revelation – such a simple action model indeed.

Accuracy was important, and the bicolour paper I have is a little thick to make the flapping mechanism but if you grab the tail and body in just the right way, and gently move the tail, the wings flap rather beautifully.

I must try the original flapping bird, now I know a much more complex version works so well.