Assessing the Quality of Your Bird Skin By Stefan Savides Don’t get caught between your client and a poor specimen. Your mount can only be as good as the bird you start with. Every project has a different set of circumstances that surrounds it. Not all birds are created equal! The first order of business when accepting a commission is to do a thorough assessment of the bird. The problem is that many times a bird may be brought to us in a wrapped and frozen state. It is imperative that it gets unwrapped and thawed, if necessary. Chances are that the bird was poorly wrapped, with the feet and neck sticking out in a manner that makes it impossible to seal the package properly. It should be explained to a client that frozen birds are difficult, at best, to be properly assessed and you need to have a good look at the specimen once it is thawed. Only a thawed bird will reveal its true condition. There are four major concerns that need to be considered. They, in order of likely occurrence, are pinfeathers, freezer burn, shot damage, and possible rot. Pinfeathers, as you might know, are new feathers that have not fully matured. Any bird shot early in the season would be a likely candidate for this problem. What makes pinfeathers such a problem is that these feathers usually fall out in the mounting process because the fleshy tip of the growing feather shrivels and becomes loose. In addition, there are feathers that have fallen out prior to the specimen being collected causing additional voids in the plumage. Freezer burn, which can be equally frustrating, is caused by improper freezer storage. This problem can be avoided simply by instructing your clients how to properly wrap a bird for freezer storage. This is simply remedied by wrapping the bird in plastic and removing all the air from the packaging while making sure that the bird is folded in as tight a position as possible. Shot damage, or trauma, can consist of feather loss, torn skin, broken feathers, shot holes, crushed skulls, broken bones etc. It’s not hard to see how these can cause problems. And the last area of concern is rot. The things to look for are strong foul odor, severely shrunken eyes, and skin or feather slippage. Once we’ve thawed and done a thorough assessment of our project, we can then advise our client as to the best possible positioning that would downplay the weak points and showcase the strong points. All of this will save us from a disappointed client many months down the road when he returns to retrieve his mount and finds that it is less than perfect. If you proceed to tell your client all that was wrong with the bird now, he may not believe you and think that you are only trying to make excuses for your poor workmanship! Good communication is the key to a satisfied client. Careful inspection up front will make for smoother sailing down the road. Good luck!

Tip 1: Repairing When attempting to repair a tear on the neck of a bird skin, it is particularly helpful to insert a dowel like object that is the same size as the original neck into the skin. This will help keep the skin in its proper place and ensure that the neck form will fit as you repair the tear. Tip 2: Fleshing While working on one of those super fat mallards or wood ducks that can fall apart on the fleshing wheel, to help toughen up the skin, smother it in damp salt and let it set overnight. It is best to fully skin and flesh the wings, legs and remove the skull before you salt the skin. The next day when you go to use the fleshing tool it will not be quite as hard of a task and the wheel will be kinder to you. Tip 3: Building For a good strong tail junction on birds, a tail groove cut into the foam body and filled with Magic Smooth will work excellent. There will be plenty of time to adjust and tweak before the Magic Smooth sets. Tip 4: Carding Carding feathers with masking tape, is easier to do if you sandwich a fine wire between two pieces of tape. This will give you the ability to bend the tape and make it stay where you want it to. This will also give you the natural bend for the feathers that you are looking for. Tip 5: Detailing Blow drying an assembled bird while holding it upside down and vigorously shaking will help the skin gravitate into its natural position. This will also help avoid back curling of the feathers.

By Stefan Savides If there is one problem area in bird taxidermy that destroys the integrity of a piece when poorly done, it is the head and neck. The overall attitude of a bird is largely expressed by the head’s relationship to the body. The shape of the head is one of the first places we look to when it comes to identifying a particular species. This shape is defined by its overall outline and the relationship of the bill to the head. The outline is partly created by the neck union. If the neck is improperly attached the appearance of the head will be destroyed, thus keeping you from accurately portraying a particular species. When I first became familiar with reproduction heads, I was very reluctant to use them. I thought, “Why go through all of this monkey business and spend more money doing it just to have a mount with a fleshy-looking bill?” It didn’t seem worth it. What I was not aware of were all the other incredible advantages. The fleshy bill isn’t even the greatest advantage! Being able to pre-paint the bill, having the skin taxi freely, thus creating a fluffier head and most of all, being able to create a solid more accurate head/neck union are the greatest advantages. It was a profound discovery for me! I now feel crippled when don’t take the advantage of this method. Another area that requires conscious thought is neck-to-body attachment. Here is an area that varies with different poses. The backbone may rise higher than the plane of the scapular bones on a high head bird. In contrast, there is enough movement in the structure of the body so that when a bird assumes a low head posture, the top of the neck or backbone can be below the plane of the scapular bones. This allows for that neckless puff ball look. When a bird folds its neck, it doesn’t lose vertebrae. That look is created by the accurate bends in the neck and proper skin orientation. The form of the body must be altered to allow this configuration. For example, the body for a low head mount may need some additional hollowing of the wishbone and backbone areas make to room for the radically bent neck. All of that neck has to go somewhere. Also, a smooth transition between the body and the neck must be created. There is a crop and generally a deposit of fat that helps to make a graceful blend in that area. This can be recreated by the use of polyester batting, cotton, tow, or any material that is flexible to allow some neck adjustment. The third area of concern is the actual configuration of the neck. In general terms, the average neck diameter is the smallest just a little way behind the head/neck union. The trachea also has its individual form. As a general rule of thumb, one should start exposing the trachea from between the lower mandibles and start dropping it down even with the back corner of the eye. It does not follow the front of the neck down. It starts in front and moves over to the right side as it drops. All bird necks are essentially created with an S-curve. You cannot make a real neck bend any other way. The vertebrae only bend in an S-curve. Even when a neck is fully outstretched it displays a very slight S-curve. Heads and necks are just like any other part of the bird for the fact that we need to duplicate their natural form as closely as possible. Using artificial heads and necks can make this process much easier!