Monday, October 31, 2011

What the heck is this?

Can anyone tell me what bird these wings are from? I received these with some fly tying materials 30 years ago when I started fly fishing growing up back in New Jersey. I've never used these feathers but I'd sure love to know what they are. Can anyone solve the mystery?


4 comments:

  1. Not sure what spiece, but it is waterfowl (duck)

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  2. Thanks David. That sounds better than my best guess of Blue Jay! The wings are small (7" long) so I thought it was a little bird. I'll have to pull some feathers off and see what I can tie with it.

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  3. Matt,

    Absolutely, those are male cinnamon teal. I searched my extensive waterfowl skin/wing and upland bird collection (I'm a serious soft hackle fan when I must fish for trout,)and the only thing that comes close that I found were various pigeons, you know how multicolored those are. I use the smallest covert feathers on the shoulder for tiny soft hackles on this bird to realistically #20, but as small as #24. A rare bird for the fly tyer but I am very certain.

    Gregg

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  4. Thanks Gregg, I appreciate it. I'll check out what i can use it for. Haven't wanted to pull it apart yet for feathers until I knew what it was.

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