revisit bird impressions

Some time ago I had an interesting conversation concerning the direction of my thesis project with Michael Mesure, the executive director of the Fatal Light Awareness Program here in Toronto. At the time I had a very vague idea of the way my artwork was going to come together physically. Michael spoke about the way in which a bird will leave a vivid imprint of itself when it collides with a window. This is the result of how migratory birds bathe, in dust.

I am returning to this idea of bird impressions against glass as it could denote the violent act of a bird hitting a window all while drawing the viewer closer as they view the almost beautiful rendering. I find the detail of the wings to be very striking.
I found a flickr group which collects images of these bird collisions. (link)
Below are some examples of stencils I made to try and recreate the powdery imprint left my birds on windows.

While I am satisfied with the stencilled outlines, I would find out if it is possible to press real birds against glass and attain the same detailed effect. My next step then is to speak with Mark Peck at the ROM about using real birds.