Preparation of Ligamentary Animal Skeletons 

1.  Carefully cut as much of the feathers, flesh, and muscle off without cutting into bone. Cuticle scissors work great because their small, curved, and sharp enough to cut through muscle and easy to maneuver around bone. Bird was placed in a 24 oz. container with 50/50 pure ammonia and water for 14 days.

2.  Bird was gently rinsed under cold tap water by splashing it with a hand not under full pressure, and not with hot or warm water. Bird was put back into the container with 17 % hydrogen peroxide for 10 days. The solution bubbles so if you'd like a top, poke some holes in the lid to let the oxygen escape. I kept a top on to keep the buoyant bird from sticking out of the solution. Make sure the container the bird is in is stable, preferably in another container or tub with paper towels at the bottom, to soak up bubble over and from the container from slipping around. Put in a spot it won't get knocked over.

3.  10 days later, took bird out of the solution to remove the head, legs, wings, eye rings, and tongue bones. Spent time de-fleshing and laid all the bones out on paper plates with wax coating. Bones may stick some so lift the bones up to loosen, especially the ones with extra flesh. To keep the neck bones in place and for re-positioning later I inserted 0.58-millimeter steel wire, cut to about 15 centimeters in length, into the vertebra. The wire reached down into the sternum firmly, but not with too much pressure.  The wire will be glued into place later.  A small excess of wire hanging out helps attach the head later on too. The body and feet (attached to legs) still needed more time in solution and were put back into a fresh batch of hydrogen peroxide for 10 more days.

4.  The bird's body should be puffy. The kingfisher had clear spots so I took it out and de-fleshed with cuticle scissors and dissection probes. The entire body was too delicate to place back into solution and didn't have very much flesh. Everything was placed on paper plates to dry (again lifting every so often to not stick, wax paper actually may have worked better). The wings and legs were placed on a small piece of cardboard, pinned along the sides using dissection pins (sewing pins or even toothpicks could work) to dry in their final positions. Remember, the idea is to keep the tissue near the joints attached so there's not too much gluing later. Don't over clean or over soak your bird.