This small, sculpturally abstract and modern-looking bird type is sometimes labeled "owl" in archaeological publications and is locally called "cat-headed falcon". Standard interpretations favor a protruding head with cat-like ears and pointed chin, unmarked body framed by unfolded wings, talons and lower tail with striations indicating feathers. Variations are marked by tendencies to simplify the shape and details of the head and feathers, as in the several excavated examples from Hongshan sites at Hutougou, Liaoning and Balin Right Banner, Inner Mongolia, see E. Childs-Johnson, "Jades of the Hongshan Culture", Arts Asiatiques, XLVI, December, 1991, fig. 9, p. 86, fig. 1:F, p. 83; Zhongguo meishu quanji: Yuqi, vol. 9, p. 18; and China Pictorial, 1986.8, p. 6. A third excavated example from Nasitai reveals clear rendering of the bird's talons, Zhongguo meishu quanji: Yuqi, vol. 9, fig. 8, p. 5. The example from Inner Mongolia is identical in type to the Sackler example. The backs are smooth and the fronts geometrically strong with squarely formed wings

Hongshan jade birds outside China are in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, D. Dohrenwend, Chinese Jades in the Royal Ontario Museum, 1971, p. 43; in the Kwan Collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Archaic Jades, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, Catalogue no. 20; in the Meifu Collection included in the exhibition of Chinese Jades, Bluett & Sons, London, 1990, Catalogue no. 2; another included in the exhibition of Chinese Jade, An Important Private Collection, Spink, London, 1991, Catalogue no. 13; and another in the Peony Collection, exhibited, Jades of China, the Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, England, 1994, Catalogue no. 14. All of the above cited examples are smaller than the Sackler example, which appears to be the largest carving of this type published