Solenoid Bird

After seeking Sean for some making advice, I am testing the bird theory by making the solenoid the bird.

I mocked this up from MDF and hot glued the solenoid inbetween the 2 parts leaving the solenoid's piston as the beak:

Lying flat, the bird just vibrated, upright it did signal well. This still leaves me with the same problem with the piston falling forward/ out. The piston needs to be held in but still free to move:


I added paper to the solenoid, in between the neck and the spring. This made the signal quieter, so i think it prevents the strokes distance and power. But goal, the piston is held in:

It would normally fall out here:


The solenoid was still exposed, so adding a beak will cover this issue:

As this is made from paper, it did not produce any noise. I'm very keen to test this idea with some metal.