Trophy Care -- Birds

    Birds are very easy to care for in the field.  First, you must determine if the bird is good enough to mount.  Many birds fully feathered enough to make a good mount.   Check for pin feathers by gently lifting backwards and looking for feathers that are not fully grown.  The back of the neck, the top of the head, the rump and the side feathers are the areas where pin or blood feathers are the most common.  

    Check to see how badly hit your bird was.  If it has large holes, wing feathers shot or broken off or more than just a few pellets in the head area, it is probably in too poor of a condition to mount.  If you are in doubt, bring the bird in to your taxidermist so that he/she can check it for themselves.
    Assuming that you have a well feathered bird that you did not shoot up,
    1.    Rinse or wipe as much blood off the feathers as you can.
    2.    Place a piece of toilet paper, or other absorbent material, in the birds mouth to help absorb fluids.
    3.    Tuck the head under or next to the wing and place the bird head first in a plastic bag.
    4.    Keep the bird as cool as you can and bring in as soon as possible OR  place in a freezer.
    5.    Turkeys and other large birds may need to be field dressed in order to keep them from spoiling.
            Make a short incision from the vent to the base of the rib cage. wetting feathers will help to seperate them to make cutting just skin easy.
            Remove the entrails and rinse the cavity with water, then place ice inside the cavity. 
            Place in a cooler or bring in ASAP. REMEMBER BRING TAG #,  NO BIRDS ACCEPTED WITHOUT PROPER numbers.    Handle the bird carefully and try and avoid anything that might  stain or break the feathers.