The project leader says some of the birds place pieces of wood on heavy machinery like bulldozers.
VOA : special.2009.10.06
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The shield itself, as I've told you is made of a heavy wood, covered by a leather or bronze sheet about three feet across, something in the neighborhood of 16 to 20 pounds worth of shield and gripped as I told you before.
You need to do that to be able to control the shield that's as big as that and as heavy as that, because it is made fundamentally of a heavy wood, typically covered by leather, sometimes with some bronze, a bronze sheet across the front of it as well.