i've been looking into taxidermy for some time now, and have been keeping an eye out for larger birds that have died from nautral causes. ive skiined quite a few smaller birds and treated their skins with dring agents like borax etc, but never attempted anything much larger, or mounts.
i was wondering if anybody knows if picking up and skinning/attempting to preserve a herring gull that dies naturally on your property is illegal if u live in NJ. just putting this out there.
thanks, any advice is appreaciated.
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Don't even entertain the idea. Don't even pick it up.
They are illegal in every state as are almost every species of bird except for the ones that have a hunting season . You can pick up a dead turkey either unless its tagged . Dont pick up any birds like this so I'm asuming the birds you have now are probably illegal also. Why dont you just call a few local taxidermists and see if they have any extra birds they dont want . Rick
Even if you could pick up birds that died of natural causes why would you pick them up if you didn's have any idea on how they died. We got a west nile virus up here in north dakota. It is carried by mosquitos and really affects birds. If those "naturally-dead" birds have the west nile or avian flu or some harmful virus like that it wouldn't be good. Save yourself some trouble and just leave em lay. Try and shoot or purchase your own gamebird like pheasants, grouse, turkeys, waterfowl (you can't purchase waterfowl though). I guarantee if you shoot your own the mount will mean a lot more to you.