Leucisitic Hen Pheasant Commission

Here’s another project I am working on at the moment, a leucistic hen pheasant.

White birds are always a challenge – a) Because white feathers are very delicate, due to the lack of melanin and b) generally a little bit more work is involved with removing blood stains from them!

This pheasant was particularly problematic due to having smashed bones everywhere, including the skull! So a lot of repair work had to be done.

Having said that, I’m pleased with how she has turned out!

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Taxidermy Green Woodpecker Commission

Here’s the latest commission all finished up – a lovely little Juvenile Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) who sadly came in to my hands after flying in to a window.

I can tell that this one is a male, because he has signs of a red area within his black ‘moustache’, whereas females’ are solid black.

This is the first woodpecker I have worked with. I’ve been wanting to work with one for ages because they have some pretty cool anatomical features!

Also, I think from now on, I’m going to tell you a little fact about each specimen I work with, so here I go (this one will blow your mind):

Woodpecker’s skulls have a groove in between the eyes on the right hand side to allow for storage of their super long tongue.

I wanted to get some good photos to show you guys, but unfortunately this one’s skull was fractured really badly in to lots of pieces, so it made it a bit difficult! (I have a few more woodpeckers to do in the near future though, so I will show you in detail then, it’s SUPER fascinating!)

Along with a fractured skull, this young woodpecker also had some blow fly eggs embedded in certain areas – a taxidermists’s worst nightmare! So unforuately he is a little scruffy in some areas, but Juveniles are generally a little scruffy anyways – I think it gives him character.

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Needle Felted Faux Taxidermy Chick

I’ve recently continued my needle felting adventure in making some super adorable wader chicks!

Check out the first one, a little ringed plover chick. He took little over 3 hours to complete, I’m so pleased with how he turned out, I can’t wait to make more!

I already have ideas in the pipeline on how I can introduce these ‘faux taxidermy’ pieces in to real taxidermy projects! A tawny owl with an owlet, perhaps?

I’m having a lot of fun finding out what baby birds have the most ‘cute’ factor – most seem to be waders so far (I LOVE their clumsy long legs)

If you have any ‘cute chick’ suggestions, please feel free to let me know! – [email protected] or tweet me at @taxidermyco 🙂

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