Taste buds are the sensory organs for taste that is important for quality of life. However, the origin and renewal of taste bud cells remains unclear. The present study applied chicken model to track neural crest cells and characterize the taste progenitor cells. (1) Multiple methods to track neural crest cells were performed and by GFP+/GFP- chimera neural crest-derived cells were successfully detected within taste buds. (2) Proliferating cells were found in multiple tissue compartments. And within taste buds, S-phase proliferating cells mostly were undifferentiated cells and the minority of S-phase proliferating cells were differentiated cells. The present study provided direct evidence of the neural crest contribution to taste buds and indirect evidence of how taste bud cells undergo renewal.