Since joining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I have a wonderful resource of information and an almost endless supply of beautiful photographs of birds. www.birds.cornell.edu, www.feederwatch.org
I consulted the Cornell archive to determine the most populous bird species in the United States and chose the top seven to render in collage.
I used the pages of the score of Gounod's Faust that I found at an estate sale to surround each bird with music and four of the seven birds have wings or breasts of old correspondence or well-loved recipes. They are decorative renditions from a composite of photos.