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!
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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.
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December 12. I never saw any flies or larvae, but the bones were already coming to light and the skull was bare.
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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.
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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.