u/Available-Law7052

Hi all! This is my first post here. I'm relatively new to embroidery, I've only done 5 small projects before this. I want to embroider this lil guy on a hat. So far so good, but I'm looking for suggestions on how to go about the neck feathers. I was originally thinking french knots for the texture, but I don't know if it'll do justice to the scale-like shape. Then again, it's a pretty small surface area (a little bigger than my thumb), so I don't know how much detail I can fit in there if I try something else. Any suggestions would be welcome!