Take care with birds you want to have mounted by taxidermist

The decision to have a taxidermist mount an animal taken while hunting is a purely personal one. What constitutes a trophy for one hunter is not necessarily the same for another. And while one hunter may choose only to leave his big game animals such as a deer or bighorn sheep at the taxidermist, another will opt to have a bird or two mounted along the way. Either way, a quality mount begins with proper care in the field.

Last fall, I wrote a column about the basic care and preparation of a big game animal for taxidermy services. For those of you who might be interested in revisiting that subject, the column is still available online (www.lvrj.com, Oct. 13, 2011). Today, however, I want to discuss the process of preparing a game bird for your taxidermist.

Begin by selecting a qualified taxidermist, one who has mounted birds before and whose work you have seen. While still in college, I had a brace of quail mounted by a hobbyist who gave me what I thought then to be a good deal. Less than two years after I wrote the check, those birds were on their way to the local landfill, victims of bugs and poor craftsmanship.

As with big game species, you want to cool your birds off as quickly as possible to prevent the onset of bacteria and deterioration of the skin, but you want to leave the bird in one piece. In other words, don’t gut the bird. Leave that to the taxidermist because the cuts needed to clean the bird will be dependent on the pose you desire, said Vicky Werner, owner of Werner Family Taxidermy in Henderson. The taxidermist makes those cuts so they can be hidden on the finished product.

“Just leave them whole and keep them cold, too. Don’t leave them in your vest. Put them in an ice chest, but you want to keep them dry,” Werner said.

One way to keep your birds and animal hides dry while in an ice chest is to use ice you make yourself. It is no secret that as commercially packaged ice melts, the water collects inside your cooler. Its packaging is not designed to trap the water, and that water can ruin your birds or hides.

However, milk jugs filled with water and frozen solid before leaving home will prevent this from happening. Water created by melting ice is captured within the milk jug, but at the same time, it will still keep anything in the cooler cold. And in an emergency, this can be another source of drinking water.

Another challenge that birds offer the hunter hoping for a quality mount is feathers. They are easily damaged but not easily repaired. Hunters sometimes forget this and through rough handling of the birds cause damage to the quills that the taxidermist can’t fix. “If they bend those quills, we can’t fix them,” Werner said.

Werner recommends that hunters hoping to have a bird mounted carry old pantyhose or nylon stockings with them on the hunting forays. While women will already have these items, you men may need to ask your wife or significant other for their castoffs. The stockings can be used as a protective sleeve for the bird.

Before sliding it into the stocking, “You want to tuck the head back,” Werner said. “Not in an abnormal position, like some guys put the beaks up and put the head back, damaging the feathers. You want to put it in a normal position. Like most birds will tuck their beaks under their wings or try to clean the backs of their feathers.”

Do yourself and your taxidermist another favor and be selective in the birds you want mounted. Choose birds that have not been heavily damaged by shot. The fewer repairs that need to be made in the skin and feathers the more you will like the finished product.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.