Broken Wings

Take these broken wings…”And learn to fly again learn to live so free.” If you remember the 80’s you’ll remember those lyrics from the song “Broken Wings” by “Mr. Mister“. I used to love it when I was a kid! (Ok now I feel old, ha) It was so funny, I remember singing along so passionately with hands clenched and imagining what it might be like to soar like a bird. Being so young I hardly had a clue about life or what this song might really be talking about but I felt emotion when listening to it.

On the subject of broken wings..Today I taxidermied two Ringneck Doves wings. Both of the doves were too far gone to rescue for a full body Taxidermy so I decided to try to at least salvage their wings. It worked! I thawed the doves under some running water enough that I could snip their wings off. I cut where the ulna and radius connect to the humerus bone, keeping only the ulna and radius bones onwards up to the end of their wings.

Once clipped I soaked the wings in denatured alcohol for about an hour then removed the flesh. Wings are such a tedious part of the bird to flesh because of all the small tendons. After fleshing I soaked in soap and rinsed. Then the wings went into the chinchilla powder before I dried and fluffed them. I’m not sure what I want to use these wings for yet. I pinned them half spread onto some cardboard to dry for a week.

I was tempted to experiment dyeing the wings but I only had green food coloring at home. I’d rather dye them a bright blue so I decided against it. I think the wings turned out pretty considering the condition the birds were in to begin with.