Shall I, Shan't I?

People often ask me how I know 'if it's alright' when I come across roadkill, and how do I know if it's fresh.  The biggest concern most people have is picking up something not fit for human consumption.  We are brought up to be so hygienic the thought of taking anything off the road is totally alien.  With birds or anything that is going to be hung, making that choice is easy, remember, this is going to be cooked, no one is suggesting eating it raw.  First, just look at it.  Does it look like it's been there days, and I mean 'days'.  It doesn't really matter if it's been there a day or two provided the weather isn't too warm and let's face it, most pheasant roadkill happens either in the autumn when the young birds are released or in the spring when the cock pheasants stupidly seem to want to pose in the road, so the temperatures are never that warm.  With pigeons it's windy weather that catches them out so again, this tends to be autumn through to spring.  You will be hanging the bird for several days anyway so being left at the side of the road for a day isn't a problem.  If, on the other hand, the feathers have become dull and dusty it's probably been there a long time so walk on.  However, if it has been raining it will look pretty bedraggled anyway.
Next, what shape is it in.  Clearly, this one has got some pretty serious damage, the legs and wings are broken.  That's not a show stopper though as I'll explain later.
Is there any obvious signs of animal predation?  You don't want to be eating a second-hand meal.
Having done your initial visual inspection it's now time to touch the bird.  Putting your fingers under the breast feathers to touch the skin will tell you if it is still warm.  Pick it up by its feet, has the bird gone stiff, rigour-mortise?  This will set in quite quickly and take a few days to leave so is a good indicator of how fresh the bird is.  The neck is the last to stiffen up.  If it is completely stiff it's been dead a day or so but if the feathers still look clean and the bird is in reasonable condition then it's unlikely to have been there any longer so still good to go.  This one had broken wings and broken hips so it was hard to say if rigour-mortise had set in but its neck was still floppy.
While you are holding it, check it over for wounds.  Do they look fresh or dried up?  This one's wounds still looked fresh and wet.  Is the skin intact over the breast?  This is important because if it isn't the flesh will dry out during hanging.  If it's not too badly torn you can use a needle and thread to sew the skin back over the flesh to keep it moist during hanging making sure you first clean the area of any road grit or dirt first as you don't want to seal that in.  If the flesh is torn though, discard the bird.  The breast is the most important area for eating.  Large open wounds anywhere else are acceptable.  This bird had a badly damaged rear end with a gaping wound and the legs were barely attached.  It was never going to make a roaster but the breasts were in good condition.  As a result, I decided to collect it just to take the breasts off and discard the rest.  Ideally, it still needed to be hung, to make sure the meat stays tender when cooked but if you intend to cook it in a slow cooker then even that isn't necessary, particularly on a young bird like this.  If you do want to hang it and you don't have a cool place that is fly free, then you can hang it in a bag.  A muslin bag is ideal as it allows the air to circulate.
So, in summary, you can pretty much get away with anything provided it has good breasts.  Don't be too squeamish as that is just over-thinking.