Our recent findings demonstrated a previously unrecognized origin of taste bud cells from the underlying connective tissue that is primarily derived from neural crest (NC). The aim of the present study was to collect direct evidence for the migration and differentiation of NC cells to taste buds in chickens. We used immunohistochemistry to label chicken taste buds at the embryonic and post-hatching stages and found that -Gustducin and Vimentin signals label distinct and overlapping populations of taste bud cells in all examined taste buds. Further, we developed an efficient method to label chicken taste buds with the antibodies in the oral epithelial sheets. Last, microinjection of DiI into neural tube was used to label NC cells and trace NC derived cells in taste buds. We found that DiI injection is not suitable for a long-term labeling of NC and a better option (quail-chicken chimera) is being adopted for further studies.