October 20, 2022. I found this little guy dead on the sidewalk shortly after sundown. From the angle of the head, I'm assuming it flew headfirst into a window and broke its neck on impact. I had my handy dandy grocery bag, so I bundled up the bird and took it home. Into the box it went!
November 3. So, this was the first feathered animal I had documented decomposing, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The fact that feathers do not decompose nicely was not entirely surprising, however. I do own chickens. Their feathers seem to linger forever, slowly degrading into a ragged mess.
December 12. I never saw any flies or larvae, but the bones were already coming to light and the skull was bare.
March 28, 2023. Birds do not decompose nicely. The flesh kinda liquifies into this jelly stuff and stays there. No bugs came to visit, as far as I'm aware.
August ??? Again, forgot to take pictures. I harvested any bones I could find, which I'm sure wasn't all of them but I did get the main ones like the arms, legs, pelvis, vertebrae, and skull. I plopped them in full hydrogen peroxide because that's stuff is still reasonably inexpensive and I didn't need much to cover the bones. A week or so later, I ended up not needing the toothbrush because any remaining flesh disappeared. The bones spent a few weeks in the sun in their little aluminum cup, which wasn't an expanse of exposure needed but I went on vacation for several days. Then I put a lid on the cup and put the bird on the shelf.
Currently incomplete but it's the next thing on the list to reassemble.