Windy Hills Taxidermy

08/14/2024

Some more photos of my blue crowned hanging parrot that took 3rd at the world championships.
I found a photo online of a wild one eating a rambutan fruit and wanted to copy exactly that. After searching for months and no luck, a friend of mine finally found some fresh ones I could make molds of. The leaves I was not able to get, so I cut down some very similar veined leaves and molded them. I made the branch with thin wooden dowels and went over them with apoxie sculpt for texture.

08/14/2024

I spent this past weekend at the world Taxidermy championships in Coralville Iowa.
It was announced that this was the largest show for Taxidermy ever held, with over 800 people attending from 15 countries and 42 US states. There were 717 entries total. This show was massive and had so many amazing pieces.
I had such a great time seeing all the beautiful work and visiting with friends. Competition has never been so tough and I couldn’t imagine being one of the judges there!! Congratulations to everyone with their incredible work!!
Looking forward to the next show!

My blue crowned hanging parrot placed 3rd in the world for the non-game bird division.
I mounted him on a branch eating a rambutan fruit based off a live photo. I hand sculpted the branch, as well as made the fruits and all of the leaves.

My recreation bald eagle also placed 3rd in the world in the recreation division.

06/15/2024

2024 Bird North American Title Holder

06/13/2024

North American Gold Medallion Title Holders 2024. What an exquisite collection of art!! 😍 This will be resized and tested on desktop and mobile screens - in various backgrounds. From there videos are edited and uploaded. We then go to Membership Works for revamping - adding of member's beautiful competition pieces. Much of this takes a bit of program coding which is quite time consuming and unforgiving. Thank you, all, for bringing to our attention any errors or omissions. In doing so, you are adding additional proofing and safeguarding, which allows us to focus on advancing this incredible community on several platforms.

06/13/2024

2024 Recreation North American Title Holder

05/16/2024

Golden pheasant display

05/10/2024

Recreation Bald Eagle. Building this piece was a unique experience for me, since it was not like normal taxidermy. Starting from scratch, I re-created a bald eagle using a variety of domestic bird feathers.
I color and trim the feathers to size and shape, the head is a cast I made from a female bald eagle.
The feet I hand sculpted with clay then molded them to give me an exact cast set.
Then everything is assembled piece by piece.
This recreation took an incredible amount of time but was worth every bit.

05/08/2024

A couple new show pieces I had at the National Taxidermy show in Columbia, MO this past weekend.
The recreation bald eagle won North American Champion in the masters recreation division as well as a first place. The golden pheasant won North American Champion in the masters bird division, highest scoring bird, and a first place.

03/02/2024

This woodcock was the most interesting bird I have worked with so far.

12/25/2023

Merry Christmas!

12/11/2023

Beautiful peacock finished up

11/16/2023

White wing scoter dead mount.

Still taking In birds for 2023 season, current turn around 6-8 months

11/02/2023

09/08/2023

My favorite quail species, the mountain quail.

08/12/2023

North American Bird Champion HANNAH STOLZ ~ Gray-Crowned Crane

08/11/2023

Gadwall/pintail dead mount

07/25/2023

Had a great weekend at the National Taxidermy Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Got to meet new friends and see many amazing pieces.
My East African crane did very well. It took 1st place in the division of excellence, best of category, North American Champion, highest scoring bird, and Breakthrough best of show.

07/11/2023

Surf Scoter

07/04/2023

Happy 4th of July!

07/03/2023

Preening green wing teal

06/29/2023

Gorgeous pair of mallards finished up

06/25/2023

New world comb duck

06/13/2023

Lineolated parakeet

05/27/2023

Gorgeous Tom finished up

05/18/2023

Not your average turkey! This Tom weighed 32 pounds and had 4 beards that totaled 33.5”
His spurs were massive as well. He must have been a fighter, his chest had more broken off feathers than I could count!

05/07/2023

Displaying melanistic ringneck pheasant

04/26/2023

Beautiful Harlequin drake

04/09/2023

Happy Easter! 🐣

03/30/2023

Eastern Rosella all finished up

03/19/2023

Bufflehead all finished up. I loved creating the ice and water on this piece.