I recently mounted a magpie that was going through the feather change (boy to a man) but the specimen shed a load of feathers especially on the back region and the neck area. I took great care not to allow the skin to dry out, I did not handle the skin much and the working temperature of my garage was 7 degrees celcius. My questions: Are birds that are shedding their pin feathers bad specimens to mount? How do you prevent the feathers from falling out? Is it best just to throw these specimens away or keep them for future when I get better.
Your help is much appreciated as I have only being "stuffing" for 8 months now.
Kindest regards
Return to Bird Taxidermy Category Menu
Pin feathered birds are always a challenge to say the least. They are prone to having their feathers fall out without a second thought. They can be done, but they generally dont look quite as robust and feather perfect as a bird who has completed it's moult.
Jon
Jon, you have confirmed what I thought but I was not sure. I think that it is best to work on fully developed adults until I get a good amount of experience under my belt. Every specimen I do is another bit of knowledge but it seems a long journey ;-)
Kindest regards