# In art, what bird species make the best angel wings?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 10, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729 "2015-05-10T23:06:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/1 "2015-05-10T23:06:58Z")
You are painting portraits of angels. You want their wings to be anatomically correct, and ornithologically correct. What species do you use as models?
Gentle doves? Majestic eagles? Swift falcons?
Personally, I think seagulls and terns have beautiful wings.
I think owl wings are rather ugly. (You could argue that they would be perfect for a guardian angel, since they are built for silent stalking. [Although that seems to me more pedantic than artistic. 🙂])
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/2 "2015-05-11T00:16:47Z")
It depends on what angel I’m painting. Gabriel probably has dove wings, but Michael is totally a bird of prey.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/3 "2015-05-11T00:20:33Z")
Parakeet. They look fine and are available.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/4 "2015-05-11T03:33:08Z")
I dunno, something just seems \*wrong \*about an angel with parakeet wings, even if sized appropriately. I’d go with eagle wings.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2015, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/5 "2015-05-11T06:15:37Z")
Egrets have beautiful wings that would serve as good models.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/6 "2015-05-11T06:50:52Z")
A swan, maybe. Or a heron.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/7 "2015-05-12T00:24:53Z")
[Here’s a link to another place where the question was asked.](http://www.quora.com/Which-birds-have-the-best-angel-wings)
My opinion would be that swan wings are close to optimum. Goose wings are also pretty good.
[Heron wings are too distinctive](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3573/3551521912_3ba8828b49_z.jpg), I think. They transition from too solid to too fringed. They don’t have the – I don’t know what – the “draped” look that [Swan wings](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Swan.spreads.wings.arp.jpg) have.
That said, some of the bits in that pic of a swan look kinda grotty. So, in addition to everything else, Angels’ wings need to be idealized, just as the human aspects of their bodies must be. They are paragons, ideals, and beyond mortal flaws.
> [@](#):
>
> In the meanwhile, Michael Goodgrind invented another game of Bodies.
> He made them of marble – an Eretzi limestone that cuts easily without faulting. And he painted them on canvas. He made the People of Home, and the Eretzi. He said that he would make angels.
> “But you cannot make angels,” said Joan.
> “We know that,” said Michael, “but do the Eretzi know that I cannot? I will make angels for the Eretzi.”
> He made them grotesque, like chicken men, like bird men, with an impossible duplication of humeral function. And the Children laughed at the carven jokes. But Michael had sudden inspiration. He touched his creations up and added an element of nobility. So an icon was born.
R.A. Lafferty, “Among the Hairy Earthmen.”
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/8 "2015-05-12T05:51:39Z")
Swan wings seem the norm, but I’m thinking maybe Egret:
[ ](http://www.abidally.com/mp/FM/IMG_0831%20Egret%20Wings.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/9 "2015-05-13T18:45:02Z")
Not swan wings. Dove. Google dove wings and you’ll see they are instantly recognizable as the iconic angel wings.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-art-what-bird-species-make-the-best-angel-wings/719729/10 "2015-05-13T22:07:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It depends on what angel I’m painting. Gabriel probably has dove wings, but Michael is totally a bird of prey.
Metatron: parrot, or myna bird.
Angel of Death: My first thought was vulture, but perhaps a raptor would be more appropriate?