Bird feathers

[Pheonixx]

I was hiking today and enjoying the spring day. I found a perfect owl's wing just laying on the ground. I know most of you think that is sick but if you saw this thing you might understand. My question is how to ensure i get rid of any possible mites (birds are well known for having mites) and not destroying the wing or the feathers.

i was thinking some sort of lysol or something....

 

[David_F]

When I turkey hunted I would keep the tails. All I did to preserve them was cut off the excess meat and pour a lot of salt over it (just the meaty part). Keep it somewhere dry and keep putting salt over it as needed. It takes a couple days to completely cure. I've never had any trouble with mites but since the one you found had probably been on the ground for a while you might want to try a flea powder (it might work). Lysol might work but I'd be worried about it discoloring the feathers. When you get it preserved I'd like to see some pics if you could post them.

Oh yeah, is it legal to keep owl feathers there? IIRC it's not legal here. Not trying to say you shouldn't. Just curious.

 

[Lasiodora]

You could also try using a dilute solution of nix.
Mike

 

[Wolfchan]

Regular ol' flea powder takes the mites out of feathers nicely. Great find!

 

[Schlyne]

Yeah, you might want to check into the law limits very carefully. Eagle feathers are protected, of course. If I recall correctly it's illegal to own hawk feathers, even if you just found it in the woods (almost all hawk feathers for sale are the feathers of some other kind of bird, which have been painted to look like hawk feathers). I don't know about owl's though.

 

[Scylla]

Depending on the species, it's probably not legal to own. It's more than likely protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.