First Articulation: Red-Tailed Hawk

Looking good so far! Always wise to clean them separatley - especially the toes and wings.
Only thing is as you say - the scapulas should really be lying along the top of the ribs.

 

Hi Ben,

Your coracoids are probably in the right place, although it is difficult to see in the picture. If they have a snug fit with the sternum they should be OK. To check whether they are set at the right angle towards eachother, try whether the furcula fits in between them. You'l have to separate the scapulas from the coracoids, the drying of the cartilage caused the wrong angle. Then you can glue them back on the corocoid and the top of the ribs.
I noticed at the picture with the laid-out leg bones, you put the first digit of the inner toe at the knee. You may have mistake it for the knee cap, but it really is a toe bone.
Good luck with the rest of the project. I'm looking forward to your results

Wouter

PS: good cleaning work!

 

For those of you who don't know him Wouter is a ridiculously accomplished bird guy. If you need help with your birds, you couldn't ask for a better authority (though "PA" certainly knows his stuff too!).

Wouter, could you post the URL for your website again?

 

Sure I can, it is: www.skullsite.com.
On this site there are two hawk skeletons, which were the first skeletons I ever built. Both have a mistake: the inner and outer toes are mixed up (shame, shame). My cousin Jan, wo built the website, had a lot of work making these revolving pictures, that's why we never redid them after correcting the mistake in the skeletons. The vulture has correct toes.

Wouter

 

Could you explain how you put the rib cage together? I've tried a few birds and always have trouble with the ribs. The glues i've used don't seem to set fast enough and the ribs fall out of position.

 

Hello Ben,

Unknowingly, Lee Post based his bird building book on a bird species which is a rare exception of the "Rule of the Toes": going from toe 1 (hind) to 4 (outer), each toe has a bone more than the previous, 2-3-4-5. In Lees eagle, the two bones of the second toe are fused. Try fitting the two bones we discussed together, and compare to Lees very detailed drawing, and you'll see what I mean. Apparently, this is normal in Haliaeetus eagles, because besides Lees specimen, two skeletons I cleaned myself (a bald and a white-tailed eagle) had the same fused second toe. In other birds, including other raptors, this is very unusual, I found it only twice. In all others, the two bones were separate.
I helped Lee with his bird manual, and I informed him of this un usual characteristic of his demo bird. Maybe he'll add a remark on it in the next print.

Wouter

 

I thought I was the only one that used a McDonalds tray to put together skulls and stuff!

 

Hi Ben,

The H-shaped bone is indeed part of the tongue, the point of the tongue bones fits in between the wider ends of the H-bone

The flat triangular pieces fit on the eyebrows:


Augur Buzzard from www.skullsite.com

The flat pointy bone is the vomer, it fits in the middle of the palate:


White-tailed eagle from www.skullsite.com

The bone you thought to be the patella indeed is.

The shield shaped bone is not part of the skeleton, it is the entrance to the windpipe.

I hope this helps,

Wouter

 

Your tongue is correct this way. It dies look different than a fowls tongue indeed, but this is how it is supposed to look.

Wouter

 

Marking this thread.

Also fascinated to find out birds have tongue bones.

 

Nice with a thread on a complete skeleton again! Your ribcage looks neat, I like that! It's nice to read input from different persons, there is always something to learn! Did you save the eyes to clean those bones separately?

 

Yeah, assembling macerated eyes is a tough job! I actually never tried it seriously and I only put them back if I beetle cleaned the eyes/skull. I always put a support under the sternum but you can also support the skeleton by putting a little support rod under the pelvis. I use small rods made of plastic (black) or plexiglas (transparent) and make a little groove in the tip with a dremel so the sternum fits in it. That's often enough combined with the two legs. I'm curious to the result!