Swoop landed in Garema Place on Wednesday, immediately prompting passing office workers to take a selfie with him and a little boy in a pram to excitedly point and cry, "Birdie".

Yes,BigSwoop is well and truly home.

He's a half-tonne, 2.4m-high, 3.5m-long sculpture that was created by a Canberra artist and brought to life by movie magicians more used to crafting space ships forStar Wars. He's a magpie eating a hot chip and he couldn't be more Garema Place.

Artist Yanni Pounartzis excitedly paced the pavement like an expectant father, waiting for a forklift to liftBig Swoop off a truck and into place under the trees down from King O'Malley's. Even before the plastic was taken off, the new sculpture was attracting attention.

"It's already gathering a crowd," Mr Pounartzis said.

"I'm actually really relieved because there were a lot of things that had to come together."

Big Swoopeven comes with his own back story, a bird who grew up in Garema Place, eating chips from long-lamented Civic takeawayChicken Gourmet, and becoming a big strapping maggie who "reckons he owns the place".

Mr Pounartzis iscelebrating the arrival ofBig Swoop with a welcome event on site from noon to 2pm on Saturday when everyone will get free hot chips, which should still taste like they came from the kitchen of Chicken Gourmet.

"So, it worked out that King O'Malley's is providing the chips and the deep fryers are the original deep fryers used by Chicken Gourmet," he said. Mic. Drop.

Big Swoop was funded by a Placemaking Grant from the City Renewal Authority after Mr Pounartzis, usually a painter, came up with the idea.

Mr Pounartzis, who used to work in advertising in Sydney, tapped into a community of professionals who usually use their skills making props and sets for movies.

Sculptor Gustavo Balboa worked on blockbuster movies such asAlien: CovenantandX-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Project manager Darryl Jones' cool past work has included building the wardrobe forThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

And plasterers Stefanie Haringer and Peter Bradford have, for a start, made the solar sailers for theStar Wars movies.

"We've built more space ships than NASA," Mr Bradford said.

Ms Haringer has also just finished work on the new drama series,The Lost Flowers of Alice Hartin which she had to sculpt a tree with Sigourney Weaver's face in it.

A magpie picking up a chip was just another challenge.

"It was really good fun for us," Ms Haringer said.