First attempt at taxidermy

I'm by no means close to being an expert...best advise repost in the bird forum & ask for a critique. The true bird guys in that forum will be more than happy to let you know what needs work & more importantly how to fix your problem areas. That being said I'm sure you've heard this before but it's so important to have good reference photos on hand while mounting any animal. After skinning out any animal you must take acurite measurements, neck length & diameter, body length & girth, leg bone placement, the long bone length of the wing, distance from the center of the eye to the top lobe of the bill. You can't have enough reference from the actual bird, if you don't place things back where they came from it just won't fit causing headaches you can't fix. Also in regards to reference photos, don't look at the whole pic, look at a small portion of the photo. Instead of looking at the entire head, concentrate on that portion of the head with just the eye & front corner of the bill. See how the feather patterns run & try to imitate that. When looking at the tail, you will notice in a normal standing pose the wing tips won't extend past the base of the tail. There's so much to be seen in a photo if you break it down into small sections and analyze each smaller section. Best of luck in your journey & take advise carefully, including this post. As I said I'm far from being close to being an expert & I ask for advise in the bird forum or through PM's anytime I have a question about something. There are literally world champions on this site & they advise is invaluable.

 

He's cute, good job. 8)

Practice, practice, practice! I found that things really 'clicked' for me on about my 5th mount.

Look at lots of references, including live animals.

 

Maybe on the next bird, include a bit of an S-curve in your neck as it exits the body, and always try to move skin forward as much as possible, toward the head.