How do you mount a bird?

Skinning
The limbs are cut so the body can be removed from the skin.

Cleaning the skin
All fat and meat needs to be removed from the skin.

Preserving the skin
The meat on the skull and bones is removed and the skin is brushed with tanning liquids.

Carving the artificial body
This artifical body is carved from foam. The neck is made of wire and cotton.

Washing & rinsing
We wash the skin with soap and threath it with an anti-moth soap.

Drying
We wrap the skin in a towel.

Drying
A hair dryer is used to blow dry the feathers.

Attaching artificial body
The neck is glued into the skull and the eye sockets are filled up with clay and acrylic eyes.

Wiring wings
Wire is used in the wings of the birds and attached in the foam on the spot where the wing bone was cut.

Wiring legs
The legs are wired and the tendons and meat of the legs we rebuild with cotton.

Sewing up
The bird is filled up with plasterboard filler and cotton before it's swen up.

Mounted
At this point the bird is ready to be set up it's branch. It takes a lot of time to get the bird in a lifelike position, arranging the feathers and get the skin in the right place. We often get the question 'why does it cost so much?', the answer is very simply: a lot of time goes in professionally clean the bird and bring it back to life.
