The buzzard skeleton

Finally! Finally it’s finished! I’ve waited nearly a whole year for my first rearticulated skeleton and it was well worth the wait! It’s the skeleton of a common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and it means a lot to me because the skeleton was a birthday present from a good friend of mine. I got it years ago and I only displayed the skull but I wanted to show the whole bunch! So I brought all the bones to my trusted taxidermist. But there’s more about this skeleton, please read more under the cut!

Once upon a time my friend found a death buzzard. He took it at home, plucked and disembowelled it and then he boiled the skeleton. Even it was his first time he did something like this, he made it very professional! Only a few little bones were missing.
No bone was broken, so I don’t think that the bird was hit by a car. Maybe he died a natural death, because it was an older bird or just sick. Or it ate a poisoned mouse? We will never know.

As I said, I only displayed the skull for years but I wanted to honour my friend so I took all the bones and went to a taxidermist in my area. I wanted him to rearticulate the skeleton but the taxidermist wasn’t interested. He said it is impossible to put all these tiny bones together and even he does so, it will cost about 1000 Swiss Francs! I swallowed about that price and went home again. So the skeleton went back in my wardrobe again.

I totally forgot my plans to rearticulate the buzzard skeleton and after I made acquaintanceship with my trusted taxidermist it popped up in my mind again. I showed him the bones and Präpi (that’s how I call him but he didn’t know it xD) accepted the job! He told me that it would be no problem and the price was much lower than the other taxidermist wanted! Yes, Präpi is a real pro!

Even I knew that he will need a lot of time to glue the bones together I was nervous. I can’t wait to get my buzzard skeleton finished ^^” But now look at it! The buzzard stands on the horn of a young mouflon! There’s so much dynamic movement in that bone pose! Präpi did an amazing job! Happy me is happy.

While he was working on the skeleton he spotted arthrosis on the hip joints. The buzzard also has a slight crooked beak (it’s hard to see). It must have been an older bird but I don’t know if it was a male or a female.

The whole skeleton looks so filigree. There so many muscles and feathers around the bones so the buzzard just “looks” big. But the skeleton of a common buzzard is more filigree than the skeleton of a chicken!

Big thanks to Bacu and Präpi for this beautiful skeleton <3