cutting out the source to get shapes needed to create the birds. Doing some transforming actions and blur (motion blur)
step 2 of 6
doing more cutting, transforming, filter liquify and burn tool actions to create branches and twigs. Please, take a look and read the tut by George55 at http://www.pxleyes.com/tutorial/photoshop/1965/How-To-Create-Beautiful-Birds-And-Flowers.html for more details...
step 3 of 6
starting creating birds from the shapes and doing masking to erase unwanted areas
step 4 of 6
again, cutting out parts of the source to complete the bird, adding an eye and some blending.... The beak of the birds is also from the thorn cut out.
step 5 of 6
arrange the composition of the overall image from the shapes composed