I was doing a gallery tour in Canada. It was migration time and the migratory birds followed a corridor through a valley which, at its top, had a big new building built with only a metal skeleton, filled with reflecting glass. The birds felt that they could fly through this obstacle - a big mistake! Every day, the concierge collected a full bucket of dead birds. A smart falconer advised him to put wires from the top of the building to the ground and hang black metal silhouettes of raptors that could move with the wind. Result: only a few birds instead of a full bucket. One of them was a golden-crowned kinglet. I noticed that it was still moving a little bit, thus not dead. Fifteen minutes later, it became more conscious, but did not fly away. I put it on the branch of a nearby tree, and took lots of pictures. You can enjoy the result…a good example of how many different ways one can get ideas for a nice painting. A few minutes later, the bird flew away, not knowing that it had posed for an artist and would be immortalized in a painting. - CB