Insect-eating bird called a flycatcher.
A clock with an articulated figure, known as the Flycatcher, stands at the base of the main nave at a considerable height and, on the hour, moves an arm with which it chimes and opens its mouth at the same time. Another automaton, the Martinillo, sits on a balcony to its right and rings bells at the quarter hours to announce the time.
Primate Church
The Burgos Cathedral's Main Chapel
The first portion, close to the transept, has a complex ribbed vault; the next two sections, plus the pentagonal chancel, have plain ribbed vaults. The main altarpiece, a Romanesque Renaissance piece began by Rodrigo de la Haya in 1562 and finished by his brother Martn de la Haya after his death in 1577, dominates the room. Juan de Ancheta has contributed sculptures to it. In 1580, the building's construction and sculpture were finished, and in the years that followed, artisans Gregorio Martnez and Diego de Urbina added the finishing touches of gold and polychromy. The patron saint of the cathedral, Santa Mara la Mayor, is depicted in a Gothic-Flemish style altarpiece from the middle of the 15th century. The presbytery is home to several intact Gothic tombs, notably that of King Alfonso X of Castile's baby son, Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa.
The choir and the choir loft
Introduction to the Burgos Cathedral Choir
The walnut stalls, a monumental U-shaped sculptural ensemble mostly carved in the Plateresque style from 1505 by Felipe Bigarny, who carved a profuse series of reliefs with religious iconography, are the most striking feature of the cathedral choir, located in the middle of the nave and immediately before the transept. The Main Chapel's lateral levels stood on either side of the presbytery until 1522. The stalls along the transverse row and the smaller portions of the stalls parallel to the nave's axis were carved in the late 16th century and early 17th century. There are two organs—one Baroque and one Neoclassical—and a 13th-century Gothic masterpiece, the reclining mass of Bishop Mauricio, carved from wood and coated in copper with appliqués of precious stones and Limoges enamels. The grille was designed by Juan Bautista Celma. The choral complex is resolved in a transept built in the early 17th century in a classicist Baroque style, which runs parallel to the side naves and the gable at the foot of the Cathedral and houses priceless alabaster sculptures and a collection of canvases dedicated to saints that are among the highlights of the work of the painter Juan Ricci.