Cleaning Birds: Plucking

As intact skin seals in flavorful juices and prevents the meat from drying out when cooked, plucked birds are best for roasting. To pluck a bird, grasp a small patch of feathers and pull against the grain with a quick jerk. Waterfowl can be rough plucked in the field to remove larger feathers. This makes final plucking much easier. Most hunters don't pluck upland game birds because their delicate skin is easily torn.