#taxidermy tutorial

I usually make only one major incision down the center of the bird from the top of the breastbone to the pelvis. Start peeling the skin away from the body gently with your fingers. You should rarely need to use your scalpel.

Once you get to the tail wiggle it up and down. You will feel where it bends the most a bit under the hips. Cut through the bones where you can feel it bending, but be careful not to cut so far through that you go through the skin on the other side.

Once you’ve separated the tail from the body, continue to skin down the back side of the body. When you hit the thighs, cut through the knee to separate the legs from the body. At the wings you will be cutting through the shoulder joint. This joint is kind of buried in the back, so it helps to wiggle the bone a little to help find it. Pull the skin down the neck as far as it will go. If you are using an artificial head (like I am here) you can cut through the neck near the head. If you're having trouble separating the head you can use wire cutters.  

Here is an example I borrow from the hunting dog association. This is what your skinned body will look like.

As for the skin, it will look like this.. You can begin rolling the skin down the thighs and separating the meat from the skin. Stop when you’re near the transition from feather to tarsometatarus (the scaly part of the leg). There isn’t enough meat to make the legs rot past this point.

Time to skin out the wings. Pull the wing bone outwards as much as possible and begin skinning down to the elbow. After the elbow the bottom side of the bone is connected to feather quills. In the picture you can see the straight line if little spikes in the bone where the quills were attached. To skin through this you can either pop each quill out from the bone with your fingernail or cut them away from the bone with your scalpel. Just take it as it comes, one at a time, and be careful with your skinning. Once you're pretty much  at the wrist you're done!

Here's what it will look like with the legs and wings skinned out. 

Now we have to clean all the meat out from the legs and wings. On the wings leave at least one tendon to keep both bones connected. If you cut off all the tendons it will come apart. Clean everything you can off the legs. Once clean take wire cutters and snip off the ball ends of the bone. It'll look something like this (probably even cleaner) .

From here you can use the body as a reference to carve your own form or use a commercial form. Test fit it and make sure it fits inside the body properly. The first photo is of the back and the two dots show where to attach the wings. The second photo shows the front and the dots where your legs should go. 

Finally we have to remove the head. Remember, this method is only for using replacement heads. Ill add on to this post soon for when you use the real head. 

Carefully cut around the outline of the bill with your scalpel. Here I had one top and bottom cut and two side cuts. I peel these triangles back, skinning as I go. Be aware of when you get to your eyes and be extra carefull around them. Soon after the eyes you'll hit the ears. You can skin right across them. Dont worry about these tiny holes, but don't cut into the feathers. Skin all the way down until you remove the head any piece of neck you may have left before. 

Remove any remaining fat and meat from the body and sew up any holes you may have accidentally made. Clean up around your tail and get any pieces you may have missed. It helps to take a wire brush to the skin to remove fat. You can also use a sculpting tool to try to scrape it away. Most beginner taxidermists don't have a fleshing wheel, so get creative! I've heard using a dremel helps too. Give your bird a bath in cold water and degreasing soap to scrub any blood, dirt, and oil out. Make sure to rinse really thoroughly to make sure no soap residue is left. An optional step is to soak in Coleman's fuel to help draw more grease out and help set feathers, but I've done fine without it. Blow dry on cool/high to fluff it up again until mostly dry. The inner skin should be completely dry. Now you can either put it in the freezer to mount another day, or mount it right away. If mounting it right away, rub borax over every part of the inside of the bird. Don't forget to get it in the legs, wings, tail, neck, and head. Take six pieces of stiff wire and make a point on each end. Give yourself plenty of wire, you'll be connecting the extremities to the body with it and also using some to hold up the wing (if flying. If not flying no wire is necessary in the wings). Poke the wire in through the bottom of the feet and guide it internally up the leg until it comes out into your skinned area. Zip tie the wire to the leg bone. Feed wire from the inside of the wing skin to the wrist of the bird and poke out of wrist. Zip tie wire to wing bones.

Now you have to add cotton to replace the meat you removed from the wings, legs, and neck. You can wrap the cotton with string, tape, or glue it to keep it in place. Wrap your second to last wire with cotton to match the size of the neck, place it in the neck, and stab it into the form. Do the same for the thighs and wings, wrapping cotton around the bone/wire to mimic muscle. 

Drill a hole in the back of your artificial head to place the neck wire. It helps if you loop the end of the wire to add some extra hold. Bondo or hot glue them together. Add clay to smooth the transition from head to neck. Place glass eyes in the given eye holes with clay and sculpt small clay eyelids. Adjust the wires to form the position you want. If flying, stab the last wire through the body and place the other end into a hole in wood to support it. You can use clothespins and cardboard to help keep things where you want them. I also use plenty of tpins to pin things where I want, especially the tail. 

Another view to show my flying support wire and how I bend wire to hold up the wing feathers. 

Finally I use superglue to glue the face skin around the bill. I also frequently use superglue to glue the eyelids around the eyes. Give your bird one last hit with the blowdrier to help you place feathers. Most birds smaller than a rooster don't require anything special done to the feet, they dry on their own. If you do need to inject the feet simply fill a syringe with a preservative (can be as simple as rubbing alcohol) and inject the toes and legs. Snip off any excess wires. Let dry about two weeks, checking in frequently to make sure everything is how you want it and make adjustments as necessary.