What is a pinioned bird. I see this here what does pinioned mean.
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The dictionary has a pretty good definition of it as "binding or cutting the wing area containing the primary feathers to prevent flight". Many captive reared birds are "pinioned" by the owners to keep them in one place. The ones I usually see have the entire wing tip removed instead of having any feathers clipped or bound.
The manus (hand section) is amputated shortly after hatching, just past the "thumb" of the bird. Pinioned birds are permanently grounded, in theory at least, if it is done correctly. It SHOWS on ducks and geese, with the only possible exception that I can think of being whistling ducks. It is nearly impossible to achieve symmetry mounting a pinioned bird unless you totally replace both wings. I don't consider a pinioned bird to be of much use in taxidermy unless it is in absolutely perfect feather and I DO happen to have spare wings available, HOWEVER, even though the bird was pen-raised and has papers, it can't be sold if you switch the wings - even if the wings are from a toe-clipped bird also having papers.
Don't you just love our govt.'s regs?
Nancy M.
Nancy, what exactly is toe-clipped. How are these birds for mounting. I will be looking for a Cinnamon Teal in the future. Thanks, Ron
It's the least offensive of all the various means by which captive-raised birds can be "marked." (I think of it as "maimed")
The right hind toe is clipped off. The birds are still full winged and otherwise OK. This is a lot easier to conceal than an amputated wingtip, obviously, so I prefer it to pinioning.
The drawback is, (from the aviculturist's viewpoint) that the entire enclosure where the birds are kept must be covered with some type of netting. That can run into some serious money, especially if the pens are very large. I think this is why most pen-raised birds are pinioned.
Nancy M.