Bird work 2021 so far (amateur hobby taxidermist)

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

I put an ad up here and on a few FB groups in late December when I decided to start practicing taxidermy as a hobby after 10 years of not doing any since high-school. Thanks to the ton of generous folks in the Alberta outdoors community my freezer filled with projects. Here are some of the birds I've done since January. My goal is to practice and improve for at least 2 years then open a taxidermy studio focusing primarily on birds.

[Smoky buck]

Not bad

Either you are an awesome photographer or you are off to a good start lol

[pikergolf]

Nice work. Keep after it, your dream will come true!!

[Desert Eagle]

Wow! That’s great work!

[Gboe8]

Look great! Nice job!

[59whiskers]

Keep up the great work.

[Dean2]

You are already doing better work than a lot of the guys doing it for a living. If you can maintain that level of quality there will be a lot of guys looking to you to get work done. Your photography is pretty spectacular too.
Best of luck.

[Dweb]

Best of luck , good work

[wwbirds]

You definitely have an eye for birds. I notice some feathers dont look fully dry and usually this can be attributed to body oils remaining on the feathers. Not sure who taught you the basic procedures but especially with waterfowl the skin must be degreased (doesnt hurt with upland either) so in addition to a soapy wash I often used white naptha gas (outside in well ventilated space).
Waterfowl can also be tricky in that a layer of fat can often be under connecting tissues against the skin. When I watched World Champion Ken Morrison prepare a skin he delayered the connceting tissue with cuticle scissors until it was all removed and then removed the fat to give him a clean skin to mount on his form. He said if everything was not removed the even small remaining fat would grease burn through the skin and stain the feathers. Leaving the connecting tissue in place (even a bit) makes it very difficult to place the feather tracts in perfect alignment and will also often cause the feather tracts to twist out of place as the tissue under neath dries. Nice work so far

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

You definitely have an eye for birds. I notice some feathers dont look fully dry and usually this can be attributed to body oils remaining on the feathers. Not sure who taught you the basic procedures but especially with waterfowl the skin must be degreased (doesnt hurt with upland either) so in addition to a soapy wash I often used white naptha gas (outside in well ventilated space).
Waterfowl can also be tricky in that a layer of fat can often be under connecting tissues against the skin. When I watched World Champion Ken Morrison prepare a skin he delayered the connceting tissue with cuticle scissors until it was all removed and then removed the fat to give him a clean skin to mount on his form. He said if everything was not removed the even small remaining fat would grease burn through the skin and stain the feathers. Leaving the connecting tissue in place (even a bit) makes it very difficult to place the feather tracts in perfect alignment and will also often cause the feather tracts to twist out of place as the tissue under neath dries. Nice work so far

Yeah fleshing is the longest and hardest part to learn. The buffy and goose I used scissors and dawn soap to fleshing and degrease and struggled to get the "poof" to the feathers. The mallard is the most recent and I used a (new to me) fleshing method from world champion matt smith. It had probably 1/8 of an inch of fat I used nail tech scissors to trim down to tge feather butts then a wire wheel to clean it all the membrane between butts. Then about 5 dawn washes with a toothbrush on skin and laundry detergent on feather side. and rinse till clear. Then soak in Coleman fuel. The feathers came out much nicer on the mallard than the goose which I had only used scissors and soap on. The addition of the wire wheel and gas helped a ton on the mallard. Thanks for taking the time to give feedback it means a lot!

[whitetail Junkie]

The waterfowl looks great...check out Art of Taxidermy on youtube as he shares his knowledge/trade secrets on bird taxidermy which I find interesting to watch.

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Originally Posted by whitetail Junkie

The waterfowl looks great...check out Art of Taxidermy on youtube as he shares his knowledge/trade secrets on bird taxidermy which I find interesting to watch.

100% he is my favorite youtuber !

[Ronaround]

personally, i think your work on spot on. love the grouse mounts.
you should be a busy man very soon!

[FishOutOfWater]

Did that Swainson's I gave you work out ?

[Ackleyman]

Impressive ! keep at er . They all look very good.

[ol whitey]

I'd say you are well on your way,they all look pretty good to me. Keep at it you will only get better, nice work so far!

[Athabasca1]

Ryan's Got Talent. Nice work.

[MyAlberta]

Looks good. Here’s to a rewarding career.

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Originally Posted by FishOutOfWater

Did that Swainson's I gave you work out ?

Unfortunately that one was so freezerburnt that when I thawed it clumps of head feathers started falling out before I could even skin it. I'm making it into a panel display with the wings/claws/tail like some folks do with turkeys.

[AutumnAurora]

Beautiful work, best of luck!

[birdseye]

Very nice,best of luck

[sns2]

Those look really great! Way to go!

[Positrac]

Those are some great looking birds! If you decide taxidermy isn’t your thing you could probably do photography for a living because those pictures are great.

I took a taxidermy course over 20 years ago because it had always interested me. I was there just long enough to realize that it was something I was never going to excel at. I don’t really have an artistic bone in my body so looking back I don’t know why I thought I’d make a good taxidermist.

[north american hunter]

those look great!