Heres a piece a friend asked me to identify. I failed how about you ?

It looks to be what I think is called a snow bird. They are put on the roof of a building/house about one to two feet up from the edge of the roof to keep the snow from sliding down off the roof and hitting whatever below.

 Right on Lew. That is exactly what it is. And then they invented a snow rake to drag snow off the roof; we can't seem to agree on whether we want that snow up there or not.

A good bit of snow on the roof, kept the old houses warmer, and less drafty.  When it started melting, that was another story. 

I'm wanting to be a "snowbird"  but the wife won't hear of it.