Hidden

No sign of the birds

Gulls crying, magpies croaking

Empty sky, dense leaves and trees

.......................................

Now how do you paint a picture that's better than the photograph? One that includes the birds. 

My first thought was to paint them into the picture, sort of hidden in foliage. So it would be less truthful in some ways bur more truthful in others. 

I remember Le Petit Prince where the narrator draws a box with airholes and tells the prince that the sheep he requested was inside. That wouldn't work with the picture I have in mind because there are no words with it. And in any case, that was different because the reason the narrator drew the box rather than the sheep was because he couldn't do a good drawing of a sheep. 

That may be true in this case, too, but the main reason for drawing them (and not in opaque boxes) is because the picture is supposed to represent a moment in time in a particular place. How do you show the birds are there? And even if you draw them in, how do you show that they are shrieking or singing or, in the case of magpies, croaking?

Show them with their mouths open? Is that the best that is possible? How about the gulls shrieking in mid air?