Bird skulls preparation

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User00047

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Hello everyone,
My young son (6) is quite interested in bones, skulls and antlers somehow….not sure where he got this trait from, but anyway, he keeps asking if we can shoot a variety of gamebirds so he can keep the skulls to decorate his bedroom.
Does anyone have experience in boiling out a bird skull? I imagine the skull just falling apart….
Any help is appreciated, cheers.
 
Buckaroo8 said:
Hello everyone,
My young son (6) is quite interested in bones, skulls and antlers somehow….not sure where he got this trait from, but anyway, he keeps asking if we can shoot a variety of gamebirds so he can keep the skulls to decorate his bedroom.
Does anyone have experience in boiling out a bird skull? I imagine the skull just falling apart….
Any help is appreciated, cheers.
Click to expand...
I used to rot them down a few at a time in a plastic carrier bag, then tip the contents of the bag onto a piece of mesh and wash away the gunk.
Still got my whole collection. It used to decorate my room when I was a nipper.
 
VSS said:
I used to rot them down a few at a time in a plastic carrier bag, then tip the contents of the bag onto a piece of mesh and wash away the gunk.
Still got my whole collection. It used to decorate my room when I was a nipper.
Click to expand...
Did this discolour the skulls much?
And how long does it take approximately?
And did you peroxide at all?
Cheers
 
www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

Cleaning bird skulls ?

One of my boys has a fascination, and a bedroom full of, animal skulls and associated body parts. Bigger stuff and animals are easy enough to clean, but smaller birds are a bit tricky/fragile. He usually just buries them in light dry ground and let’s nature/time do it’s thing. Any suggestions...
www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk
 
I'd use the maceration method and leave them in a bucket of water outside. When it's warm it only takes a couple of weeks, lol ger in the winter. I've done deer skulls like this and also squirrels and rats too.

Pour the bucket through a sieve and rinse off, add some peroxide if you want them whiter.
 
Buckaroo8 said:
Did this discolour the skulls much?
And how long does it take approximately?
And did you peroxide at all?
Cheers
Click to expand...
It didn't discolour them provided I didn't leave them in the bag too long. Not sure how long though. Just used to check from time to time to see how they were coming along.
Used bleach on a few larger skulls, but didn't bother as a rule.
 
I well remember the skull that started my collecting hobby. It came off the bloated and stinking carcass of a seal that I found washed up on the beach while on holiday in North Wales with my parents. (We lived in London at the time, and I must have been about 7 or 8). It says something about my parents that they were prepared to share a vehicle with this hideous specimen (albeit well wrapped) for the long journey home. And it really was a long journey in those days!
I proudly unwrapped it in the back garden at home, but the long journey wrapped in an old sack and some newspapers had done nothing to enhance its aroma. Really, it wasn't cut out for a city life, so it was hastily re-wrapped and transported to our rural Norfolk house at the earliest opportunity. At least we benefited from no neighbours there!
I still have it.
(The skull I mean, not the house in Norfolk).
 
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Bird skulls is a wide area. I have a rather extensive collection from my Biology teaching days. A raptor or crane or goose is real easy to prep. A sparrow much more difficult. Have your child start with big and easy to replace skulls (chickens, corvids, etc…) and then work on finer skulls as he get more talented.

Boiling destroys many of the fine bones, so I preferred beetles. However, if you go that route you will have to use beetle larvae for the fine/small heads. Adult beetles will eat away the fine bones.
 
Slow cook them usually I would recomend maceration but bird skulls are surprisingly not overly fragile they bounce very well even when slow cooked, Given there for a 6 year old I'm sure at one point or another they will have an accidental fall or two.
Ideally change the water out a few times to stop staining but peroxide whitens them incredibly well either way.

If he takes an interest in deer skulls then I would recomend maceration over boiling you arent damaging the internal structure with that method so they can survive a fall a bit better than a boiled skull
I have a roe buck that's taken a fair few falls in its life time mostly recently a fall on slate flooring and only the nose chipped! on the contrary I have a fallow doe that's smashed on carpet
 
Cootmeurer said:
Bird skulls is a wide area. I have a rather extensive collection from my Biology teaching days. A raptor or crane or goose is real easy to prep. A sparrow much more difficult. Have your child start with big and easy to replace skulls (chickens, corvids, etc…) and then work on finer skulls as he get more talented.

Boiling destroys many of the fine bones, so I preferred beetles. However, if you go that route you will have to use beetle larvae for the fine/small heads. Adult beetles will eat away the fine bones.
Click to expand...
Agree totally. The first ones I played with were things like rabbits, foxes etc I had very tolerant parents (my dad was to blame as he was a biologist) he first introduced me to owl pellets, picking them apart to get vole skulls and alike.
Although once I knew how a birds skull fitted together, I never had a problem with boiling them, even the smallest (firecrest/blue tits etc) but you do need to be very careful that is for sure.
 
I have no tips on preparing bird skulls but here's my small collection. All found when out and about.
274C448A-DC43-4D46-BAD5-3F8B7861270D.jpeg
Can you name them?
 
sundog said:
Not a gull but getting very close 😁
Click to expand...
Well I’ve got kittiwake here and various tube noses like fulmar and shearwaters and it ain’t them, got most of our uk auks too and it’s not them….do tell? (If you want to keep the suspense by all means pm)
 
Aye. Well done.The bonxies got hit hard by the bird flu a couple of years ago and I found this skull walking across the moor out stalking. So sad as they are such impressive birds
 
sundog said:
Aye. Well done.The bonxies got hit hard by the bird flu a couple of years ago and I found this skull walking across the moor out stalking. So sad as they are such impressive birds
Click to expand...
I’ll set a similar challenge back at you in a minute, brace yourself!
 
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