Here is a picture i started on back in December and finished in early march and i got annoyed with it and left it facing the wall for a couple of weeks. I haven't really painted birds before, certainly not in oils and the idea i had wasn't the easiest, but i thought i'd give it a go. I had no specific refs for any of this other than the background (which i got from the WC Ref library) so used a collection of 21 references to help me. Basically picture is of a blackbird flying back into the woods to roost, a red kite sees this as an opportunity for a meal and swoops down and the blackbird turns as he notices a shadow fall upon his head (not very clear in this photo). It's by no means perfect, more of an experiment.