The dead-bird detective

theWeek ^ | Feb 5, 2017 | Chris Sweeney

[Daffynition]

Pepper Trail is the first to admit he has an unusual skill set. Give him a single feather or a small fragment of a claw or a cooked hunk of breast meat, and he'll tell you the species of bird from which it came. As the world's leading criminal forensic ornithologist, Trail is asked day in and day out to perform these exact tasks. Over the past 18 years he has assisted with hundreds of investigations, testified in federal court 15 times, and handled more bird carcasses than anyone should. "All birders have life lists," Trail says. "I have a death list."

[Hot Tabasco]

a feather explosion on my yard. Was it a hawk or cat that ate the victim?

Hawk........

I once had a hawk zoom about 4 feet from my head as it was zeroed in on a dove on the lawn about 50 feet behind me........Boom!

Since I was standing there watching it, he picked the dove up and flew off into a pine tree. Usually they'll just rip open the chest and eat the breast and insides then take off.

[bgill]

I remember watching that show, Truth or Consequences and To Tell the Truth while sitting in a high chair eating breakfast. Actually, it was brunch because I’d get up before dawn to eat breakfast with grandpa before he did the farm chores and then to work. Grandma would sit me in the doorway so my crumbs would fall onto the hallway floor rather than the living room carpet. She’d get her housework done and I wasn’t under foot. At night, I’d stay up late to watch Dr. Kildare with Grandma. Looking back, I had a messed up sleep routine but good memories.

[JoeFromSidney]

I used to work at a University research institute. I had a contract to study the effects of birds being sucked into jet engines. Part of the study needed information on the weight of a bird, so I could correlate weight with engine damage. The agency with which I had a contract had another contract with a guy who identified bird types on the basis of the remains found in the engine. That way I could get bird weight once he identified the bird type.

My work was to estimate the probability of engine damage as a function of bird weight, time of day, season of year, etc. I analyzed hundreds of incidents and turned in a report. I don't know what, if anything, the agency did with it.

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

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