How to Close Waterfowl Heads without Sewing

[George Roof]

I've often wondered about the *clip* motion.  Now I know what I did, but just tell us how you *clip* without cutting feathers.  Do you push the head back on the neck and *clip*?  If you DO, then the wire slips back under the skull bones and no longer provides any support for the head.  If you DON'T, then the wire has a sharp edge sitting under the feathers.   Perhaps there's a way I'm not familiar with, but that's why I'd NEVER go back to that wire through the head stuff.

[JonHarleTX]

George,

I too run the wire out the head, I fill the skull cavity with caulking, do whatever rebuilding, then sew up the under the throat incision..  You can use the wire protruding to pose the head and neck, hold the bird.. and not mess up any sculpting you have done to the face..   Give it a day, put a piece of paper towel over the wire, push it down and clip close to skull.. Pull skin up and over the wire tip and fluff slightly .. The caulking will hold the wire secure. even if it pops back under the skull..

And yes LJ, 90% of wood duck will invert.. Just have to be patient. I mean if they can swallow a pecan, they should invert.. The way I was shown was to remove the tounge, break the jaw hinges so that the lower mandible will slide into the place where the tounge and wind pipe were and then it should invert.  That being said.. it is tight, and I normally bypass inverting if there is any shot damage to the head neck region as they will tend to tear.

Jon~

[George Roof]

Thank you Jon.  I never thought about the paper towel trick.  Excellent advise.

[GulfcoastWF]

Jon, thanks for the tip! Im still a young and I know I have a lot left to learn.  I dont skin any of my birds anymore, but I will personally experiment with the woodies tomorrow. Its not a big deal closing the head but it sure would be nice not to have to do it if I dont have to... pulled out 4 for this next week. I will say it seems logical, all those acorns... even found a half a pecan in one last year. lol.

I think covering the head feathers to "clip" the wire is good for beginners. I used to us a special cut business card to keep the head feathers protected.  I dont even do that anymore as its just something I dont even really think about and if done right in my opinion, doesnt disrupt any feathers and is unnecesary.   yes, george, you got it. when its completly finished, push in a bit and clip.  why does this frighten you?

***keeps your fingers OFF of the head*** plain and simple

Call me hard headed, but I still believe so many of these bird taxidermy procerures are overthought and overdone. 

thanks agan jon!
LJ

 

[lee, tees valley]

 yes the old paper over wire trick is well known in the uk were old school wire through the head is still used regularly . i dont put the wire through the head on all bird's just certain species.. before i cut the wire i slide the head up the wire a bit  put a blob of super glue gel on the neck [through the open mouth] then i push the skull back on to the neck and cut the wire off ..

[BigSwede]

Why anyone would use a cut in the neck/throat area to skin out a bird head on birds with narow neck skins  is beyond me. I cut around the bill even if I am using the real head. No inscision to close, you get a nice whole skull to clean and rebulid (the ready-to-mount skin is kept in the freezer) I would never stick a wire through the skull either (I do it on small songbirds, fill the brain cavity with apoxie sculpt and cut the wire as described, when bird is freshley mounted,  pull the head skin OVER the wire end and groom the feathers. When apoxie has cured the neck wire is rock solid. 
Works great. B S

[Nancy C]

Why anyone would use a cut in the neck/throat area to skin out a bird head on birds with narow neck skins  is beyond me.

I do, and here is why:
First, I don't have a problem with sewing so that isn't an issue for me. Second, and this is the real reason, I USE that incision to help position the skin under the throat. I take the stitches just a little bit larger than I want them to be when it is all done, and then I PULL them in order to draw them together and shorten the incision. I don't know exactly how to explain it. I have shown it to people (like Jon) but I seem to fail when it comes to an intelligible written description. Here goes! You hold the skin firmly at the end of the incision, but without pinching the stitches. Then, very carefully, draw the thread out so that the stitches gather together. If your seam is longer than an inch or so then you might need to also do this before you reach the end of your incision. I hope that makes sense.

What this does is it makes a nice, smooth curve under the throat. It almost totally eliminates the problem of what to do with all of that stretched-out skin. There will be no wrinkles or folds - just like on a live bird. To me, that is worth the trouble.

There are other ways to deal with the excess throat skin problem, of course, but this is the one that I am most comfortable with. It is especially helpful with low head positions but I use it on all standing mounts. It is less important on flying mounts if the head is outstretched so I normally don't gather those stitches.

[byrdman]

I,m with Nancy ..I do a lot of grooming filling etc. thru neck insicion and when sewn up tightens loose neck/throat skin.......and most bending/posing is done beforehand so I dont have very much bending at all after neck is attached......you can also hold bill and do any addtnl bending as the neck bondoed in is very secure....I had too many customers bring in other taxidermists birds with torn necks from using the wire out the head system and no caulk or clay of any kind...on the woodies go in thru the mouth and snip out tongue then carefully run a rounded scissors in between cheek and throat and clip out entire jaw bone and cheeck meat.....then you can turn head using a lot of borax to keep dry and get a good grip...but dont try to turn inside out as much as you do slide the skin forward hard to explain kind of like stipping a fox tail .......make sense?

[BigSwede]

OK, having seen work from both of you I will not argue...! I´ts just that I hate sewing myself, I am not very good at it and I often mount relatively small birds that cannot be inverted all the way (woodpeckers, for example.) I would NEVER get the soft, full necks on small woodpeckers until i learned  this method. Seems like the feathers were permanently disturbed in some way. Probably by me...

B S

[GulfcoastWF]

Jon and byrdman, thanks for the tip on rolling out wood duck heads.  worked like a charm!!!


LJ

[rawrockkills]

instead of glueing the skin on the back of the head down to the skull which limits your options in taxi-ing, could you glue both sides down to perhaps a kleenex, tissue paper, tape, or something of the sort so the skin is connected but not bonded to the skull???

[tomdes]

Rawrockkills,

I think that was discussed above by Gulfcoast using a piece of celophane to prevent the glue from touching the skull or neck material. I've done it that way and it works well, it allows me to taxi the skin, and as Gulfcoast said, there really isn't much skin taxi'ng at the back of the head.

I use apoxie sculp to fill the head cavity and I then set the circle bent wire into the apoxie. This gives me a good base to do the eye work and it gives me time to position the head the way I like it before the apoxie cures (overnight).    

[rawrockkills]

thanks tomdes, i think i will try that out on this bufflehead i've got coming up this weekend

[lov2bhntn]

How are you doing this with out glue the the quill butts in place?   I have tried this several times, I don't get clue on the feather, but I have found that the quill butts get clue on them and then they get stuck in whatever direction they feel like being glued in.   No amount of gromming has fixed the glue on the quills issues for me.  I must be doing something wrong.   I also glue to a piece of latex clove.