I’ve been a birder since I was 13, and if I have one complaint about Oregon its that it rains too much to get a good birding trip in here! If you’re like me and want to see birds up close but don’t want to get rained on while you’re doing it, then you’ve come to the right place. Over the past few months we’ve been working on our newest exhibit: Feathers in Flight. Featuring real taxidermy birds from Oregon, a wall where you can test your wingspan, and all the information you could ever want to know about the connections between birds and humans, this exhibit is sure to make you want to pick up your bins.
Funding from the Bandon Dunes Charitable Foundation was the green light that finally let me get started with this project. For about a year I had been working on getting my taxidermy license, federal salvage permit, and all sorts of other federal hoops to jump through so we could do this exhibit in-house, but then Bandon Dunes swept in and made my life a whole lot easier! Their funding allowed us to contract a REAL bird taxidermist who already had all those fancy permits AND who was conveniently looking to expand her portfolio of bird taxidermy.
Enter Emily. With the help of the incredibly talented Emily Rodgers over at Fur & Feathers Taxidermy, we were able to install over 15 taxidermy birds in replica habitats that you can now view up close. Emily’s work is incredible, and her dedication to making these birds look so realistic has really made this exhibit come to life. Our team of “bird nerds” – myself, Willa, Julian, and Brandon – spent hours scouring all our bird guides, life lists, and research projects to write the most engaging and interesting fun facts and stories we could come up with. From why bird feathers fluoresce, to why women wore feather hats, and just how many birds you can find in Oregon, we went on quite the rollercoaster ride of bird trivia during this process. Our goal was to make it so birders and bird-haters alike can walk into this exhibit and feel like they learned something that made them want to care about birds just a little more.
So come on by and see our hard work come to life, we’re excited to share our newest exhibit with you. Featuring fun interactives, fascinating displays, and beautiful specimens, Feathers in Flight is sure to make you want to flock to the museum to explore the wonderful world of birds. And don’t worry, this exhibit isn’t migrating any time soon, so it’ll be here for years to come!