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Step 1
Know that many birds produce pellets. Owl and hawk pellets are the most commonly found because of their larger size, but herons, warblers and swallows also throw up small pellets.
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Step 2
Check under trees. White splotches and pellets usually identify an owl above. Owls throw up pellets up to 16 hours after a meal, so they are frequently roosting near their nest when they produce a pellet. It's their way of getting rid of the parts of dinner they can't digest.
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Step 3
Wash your hands after handling pellets, since they can transmit disease. Or you can buy bird pellets commercially. They have been sterilized and are often used in classrooms. You can also buy tools to dissect bird pellets from specialized companies.
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Step 4
Use the pellet to identify the bird that produced it. Some birds (the red tail hawk for example) eat in small bites so there will not be large identifiable pieces in their pellets. Most owls eat their prey whole and so their pellets contain more visible bones. The size of the pellet can help narrow down the search for the species that produced it, since smaller birds have smaller throats and thus produce smaller pellets.
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Step 5
Protect the pellet. It is often black when fresh, but turns gray as it dries out. Experts suggest to dry pellets on a newspaper and store them in a freezer to kill larvae that may be inside.
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Step 6
Identify the bird's meal. Pick through the pellet (special tools are available) to see what the bird had eaten recently. You can identify bones or even skulls from small mammals in a pellet. Some beetle parts may remain intact, especially the hard shell. Feathers are usually unrecognizable after digestion, but the quills can remain intact.
