Maybe applique a wing on it but make it so that it is not fully flat on the material - so you can lift up a corner of the wing ya know what I mean? That might give it a less flat, more feathery look.
You could also maybe do a bit of that raw edge applique and make the tail part raggy so make it look more feathery... I'm not a big fan of raggey quilts but I can see just the tail feathers being a bit raggy or something along that line as a possibility...
Just throwing out some brainstroming for you. Maybe someone else can run with the ideas and make them better or maybe it will trigger another idea...