houses over 600,000 bird specimens

from the last 200 years.

And new specimens are added each month,

thanks to the detailed work of specialists who preserve,

skin, and maintain every bird in the collection.

But most of these birds never see the museum floor.

So why do they need to be perfectly preserved?

The answer: research,

whether it's identifying birds killed by airplanes

or discovering evolutionary changes in duck bills.

We're not just preparing this bird for use tomorrow.

We're preparing this bird for use

for hundreds of years from now.

Narrator: We went to the Smithsonian

to see how one specimen in the skins collection

is added, prepared, and used for generations to come.

It starts with acquisition.

Chris: It says here on the label that this ostrich was sent

by King Menelik as a present to President Roosevelt.

Narrator: Specimens are usually donated

by people or organizations.

This California condor was donated

by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This bird came from President Theodore Roosevelt's

personal collection.

And this Cooper's hawk

died while crashing into a building window.

It was donated back in 2017

and is about to get its spotlight in an upcoming exhibit,

but it was initially stored in this freezer.

Christina: So, it's on a left shelf. ♪ Da-ta-dah. ♪

Narrator: From there, our hawk

is taken up to the prep lab

into the skilled hands of museum specialists

like Christina and her husband, Brian.

Christina: Brian, did you do that?

Brian: Yes, I did put the cotton in the mouth.

Married couple's spat.

Brian: This specimen is 9,926.

So I've prepared at least that many birds and mammals.

When you're at about 10,000,

it shows that you've been doing it

for at least probably 20 years or so.

It was a fun exercise, and it actually worked.

Narrator: Blindfolded or not,

the specialists first thaw, weigh, and measure the hawk.

And then they pick up a scalpel

to start separating the skin from the muscles and fat.

Brian: Since these are going to be stored

as dried specimens, we want to remove

as much of the muscle from the specimen that we can.

Narrator: Brian removes the skin

from the body of the bird,

discarding the soft tissues and oil glands,

which would cause the specimen to rot.

And it's crucial to get every piece of fat out

without damaging the skin,

since these specimens are meant to last for years to come.

That's where gentler tools like his hands become useful.

Brian: You have to go very slow, methodical

to get the skin off without ripping it.

I'm pushing the skin rather than pulling it,

so I'm not stretching it.

Narrator: Brian also uses corncob dust

throughout the process to absorb any body fluids

so the specimen is kept clean.

New people use a lot less dust,

and more experienced people just cover it with dust.

Narrator: When removing the smaller parts of the bird,

like the head or the eyes ...

Brian: The angle of the scalpel also makes a big difference.

You notice I'm cutting away from the skin.

There's been times where when you grab the eye

it squirts at you.

Narrator: Sometimes birds that have more fat on their skin

need to go through additional cleaning.

Christina: All this white goopy stuff, this is all fat.

That needs to come off. Otherwise,

it will get rancid,

and then it will acidify,

and it will literally just ooze out of the skin.

Narrator: They use this fat wheel machine

to remove all the fat until you can see the feather tracts.

This takes a little bit of practice,

because if you press too hard, you will rip the skin.

Narrator: Once the fat is cleared,

more corncob dust is used to absorb the moisture,

and then the specimen is washed and dried.

You want to see me blow the sawdust off?

Producer: Yes, I do. Christina: OK.

[chuckling]

All right.

So, with this, we do it in the fume hood,

because, as you'd imagine,

I'm going to blow a lot of dust everywhere.

Narrator: Christina uses a forced-air dryer

to blow off the sawdust

and a hair dryer to fluff up the feathers,

adding a nice sheen to them.

To get the bird presentation-ready,

Brian will first tie the wings together

to create a limited range of motion.

He approximates how far a Cooper's hawk

would've naturally spread their wings.

Brian: So, in the future, if somebody grabs the bird

and opens up the wings to see the underside of the wing,

by tying it, it'll make the specimen stronger.

Narrator: Now the specimen is ready to be

stuffed with cotton, recreating its original shape.

Brian: We're trying to make a specimen

that lasts forever and is strong.

So I'm not a tailor or a seamstress,

but I can sew up a bird pretty good.

We get the feathers,

make sure that they're arranged properly,

in the right order.

So that'll assist researchers later.

Narrator: The last step is pinning the bird

onto a board to dry into its permanent position.

Brian: However I end up pinning it,

that's the way it's going to look

the rest of its career at the Smithsonian.

It takes probably close to 100 birds

before somebody can go at it alone.

Once they reach 1,000 birds,

then we say that that person

is generally an experienced preparator

and they can teach other people very well.

Narrator: After 10 or so days,

this Cooper's hawk will be completely dried

and ready to debut on the exhibit floor.

The hawk will be just one of 20 specimens on display

for the "Lights Out" exhibit,

all birds who have died from flying into skyscraper windows.

And they'll eventually join the larger skins collection,

with over 470,000 specimens,

helping researchers from all around the world.

Like Lauren and Joshua,

researching how mating between domestic and wild ducks

has changed the size and structure of their bills,

or Jim with the Feather Identification Lab team.

He works with government agencies

to identify birds killed during air strikes.

We get about 10,000 strikes a year.

The busiest times are in the fall and the spring.

And this place, the division of birds,

is the perfect place for us to be,

because we have 80% of the world's bird species

represented in this collection.

So if there's a bird strike that happens in the world,

we likely have a specimen to match it up to.

This is a bird-strike sample,

the remnants of a bird-aircraft collision

that has been sent to us for us to identify.

So I can see that we've got a couple wing feathers here.

We've got a tail feather, we've got some body feathers.

So we can actually take this feather out

and match up these tail feathers

quite well to the barn swallow.

And we've got even these nice little peachy feathers

that were doing this.

Narrator: His findings are sent to airfield biologists

and engine manufacturers to adjust aircrafts

and reduce accidents.

This bird was collected back in 1878.

And so this bird was collected

before airplanes were even imagined

and put into this collection.

And now we're using it

to identify a bird-aircraft collision.

So we never know what these specimens

are going to get used for,

but that's really why it's important to keep them forever.

Narrator: A separate wings collection also helps

for deeper analysis of feathers.

Jim: Back in the old days they didn't make too many

spread wings or flat skins.

And us in the Feather Lab really like that,

because it allows us access to feathers

that occur under the wing

and access in different areas of the bird

where we might get a feather to, but it's very difficult

to get into a traditional museum skin.

Narrator: Other researchers might be exploring

the microbiomes found in the wings, like Gary.

He discovered that vulture wings

have a bacterial group called Deinococcus,

one of the toughest organisms

that can withstand high radiation.

So, when I've exposed this wing into full sun,

the temperature on a day like today

would be 90 degrees outside.

In about three minutes, the temperature on the surface

of this wing heats up to over 160.

And that probably explains why Deinococcus

is so dominant,

because it's one of the few bacterial groups

that can actually reproduce.

Narrator: At the Smithsonian, these are just two

of the collections within the bird division.

There's also the organ collection,

soaked in ethanol for preservation;

the skeletons, with each bone meticulously numbered;

and mounted birds

that retired from being on the exhibit floor.

All of these are timestamps

of the present bird population,

creating a record for future generations of researchers.

Brian: When the first bird preparators prepared birds,

they had no idea what DNA was.

Even though they didn't know that,

by doing a consistent bird prep,

it has enabled future researchers

to conduct research on birds.

And I wish I had a time capsule

to go into the future to see what our birds

are going to be used for 100 years from now.