#birds of different species

[egoschwank]

al things considered — when i post my masterpiece #1197

first posted in facebook june 3, 2023

peter blume -- "winter" (1964)

"... a new day was starting, the things of the garden were not concerned with our troubles. a blackbird ran across the rose-garden to the lawns in swift, short rushes, stopping now and again to stab at the earth with his yellow beak. a thrush, too, went about his business, and two stout, little wagtails, following one another, and a little cluster of twittering sparrows. a gull poised himself high in the air, silent and alone, and then spread his wings wide and swooped beyond the lawns to the woods" ... daphne du maurier

"hell, maybe we're all getting a little carried away with this. admittedly a few birds did act strange, but that's no reason to ..." ... sebastian sholes (fisherman in diner)

"i keep telling you, this isn't 'a few birds'! these are gulls, crows, swifts...!" ... melanie daniels

"i have never known birds of different species to flock together. the very concept is unimaginable. why, if that happened, we wouldn't stand a chance! wow could we possibly hope to fight them?" ... mrs. bundy (elderly ornithologist)

"it could be the most terrifying picture i ever made" ... alfred hitchcock

"the early worm skips the birds down in florida" ... al janik

[heartnosekid]

purple glossy starling (lamprotornis purpureus) | adlerstudios on ig

[felassan]

.

[fanbles]

On a lighter note—

Octavia should be taller than Stolas. She has those peacock/swan genes and he doesn't.

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

An Account of the First Aërial Voyage in England – Vincent Lunardi // A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains – Gideon Algernon Mantell, James Parkinson, Edmund Tyrell Artis // Potorous Platyops – John Gould // Thylacinus Cynocephalus, Juvenile – Joseph Wolf // Choeropus Castanotis – John Gould // Hippotragus Leucophaeus – Joseph Smit, Joseph Wolf // Hapalotis Albipipes – John Gould // Pyrenean Ibex – Richard Lydekker, Joseph Wolf // Eastern Elk – John James Audubon // Royigerygone Insularis – Gregory Macalister Matthews, Henrik Grönvold // Sceloglaux Albifacies – John Gerrard Keulemans // Leporillus Apicalis – John Gould // Columba Migratoria – John James Audubon, J. T. Bowen // Moho Apicalis – John Gerrard Keulmans // ...Familiar Place – Lucy Dacus

for @artists-ache 💙🌹 📖

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Daily fish fact #500

🎉🐟🎊500 daily fish facts reached! 🎊🐟🎉

And I could not have done it without you.

🐟🐟🐟 Thank you. 🐟🐟🐟

From the bottom of my ranch-filled heart.

Perhaps this much celebration is already enough, let's move onto the actual fact...

General fish fact!

The very first animals that could be considered fish appeared around 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian period. They've been evolving and diversifying ever since! With 35 000 discovered extant species and counting, there are more species of fish than there are species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined.

[monikatouhou]

Outdoor catgirls DEVASTATE wild birdgirl populations. Please keep your catgirls indoors.

[wolfsbaneandthistle]

The crew of the exploratory ship, The Little Bird. The captain, Diaf, hired this crew to traverse the stars, learning more about both the worlds around them… and themselves.

Think sci-fi adventure but the characters all have the vibes of a bunch of scientists stuck in Antarctica.

Hán and Cereza are the only humans onboard, the majority of the crew being aliens. This is a trend that continues for the galaxy at large for entirely non-suspicious totally not plot-related reasons.

I’m still working on worldbuilding for a lot of these guys but a couple of the tags I made for them have a decent amount of stuff. I made this bc I finally got around to finalizing the design for most of the characters! There are… a few that I will probably rehash again, but there shouldn’t be any major changes. The old version of this post went outdated when I updated the designs, so this is pretty much just a redo of that with the rest of the crew.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

bird update!!

still cute!

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I'm probably going to do a terrible job of articulating myself here but every time I think about the worldbuilding in Hatoful Boyfriend, I think about the implications of having the birds simply have adopted the structure and policies of human society and go insane.

It's clearly originally just for the ridiculousness of it all for the players, but AGH it explains so much regarding the extremely rampant classism/racism/speciesism and how apparently normalized it is. It also, to me, adds a bit of moral nuance to the Dove - Hawk Party conflict.

(Long post under the cut. I'm so sorry I just kept going.)

First off, I'm obsessed with the concept of the birds becoming sapient and simply... taking over a society that was not structured for them. It leads to difficulties in universe! Bird wings are not made for doing tasks that human hands can do naturally - there's a couple instances where the characters ask for Hiyoko's assistance or express envy since she can just do the task more easily than they can. The birds are outright disadvantaged in certain areas of life, and yet, the society is in such turmoil due to the newness of it all that there still aren't really any workarounds for stuff like this.

Not that there haven't been any suggested solutions, such as the Labor 9 series, put forward initially by the Dove Party. Yeah, you know, that one throwaway line about how the party that up until this point have been the "good guys" wanted to take still semi-conscious human brains and make robotic slaves out of them Cyberman-style? What the hell. And what gets me is that Shuu was able to find the initial proposal, which he really only made tweaks to, which means that the project was at least close to being finished on the conceptual/planning/design phase before somebody went "hey this is a little fucked up actually".

The Dove Party wants peaceful coexistence with the humans, while the Hawk Party wants to eliminate humanity entirely. But we don't really go into how these two lines of thought evolved. I believe I have a suggestion for at least one part of the puzzle though.

Of all the birds in Hatoful, who enjoys the most privileges and the highest status? Fantails, it would seem. A breed of pigeon that is popular as a pet, considered beautiful and sought after, and achieve high accolades in shows and competitions - for clarity's sake, fantails were valuable in human society, and this status appears to have transferred when birds became sapient and took over. Conversely, which birds are ranked lower and often blocked from entering certain higher class places? Rock doves, who, in human society, are given an unfairly bad reputation, and considered anything from unclean and dirty, to nuisances, to pests. Again, this status transferred over when the birds took over.

So, while we don't know too many of the birds who make up the agents of the Dove and Hawk Party, let's take a look at who we do know of.

Fantails (Yuuya, Dove Party) are considered valuable over other doves and pigeons for being specially bred for their striking tail feathers

Cockatiels (Leone, Dove Party) are some of the most popular and beloved companion birds, kept as pets and considered very friendly

Rock doves (Ryuuji, Hawk Party) are considered unclean pests who receive a bad reputation, and are generally not treated with respect or appreciation <;- notable thing to mention here is that Ryuuji actually does like humans - I think he was only Hawk affiliated for the grant money and research facilities, which... fair enough man.

Chukar partridges (Shuu/Isa, Hawk Party) are game birds, specifically bred and released to be killed and eaten, and considered a delicacy

...do you... see what's going on here?

(I haven't mentioned Tohri as he's a special case. Give me a minute and I'll get to him!)

The birds we see in the Dove Party are those birds that were already viewed in a more favourable light by humans, a favourability that transferred over to their new society. Of course they are more likely to advocate for coexistence! They have less to lose, overall. And the Labor 9 series, and how that could've ever been suggested in the first place, suddenly makes a lot of sense. For many of these birds, society the way it exists now benefits them. Some of these high ranking Dove Party folks may be less about actual peace and justice (like Yuuya or Leone) and more about maintaining the current order of things - humans coexisting under their control, while they get to maintain their status... which is itself a product of human invention.

The birds we see in the Hawk Party, by contrast, are looked down on or hunted. Historically, even before bird sapience, they did not have a harmonious relation with humans - and it's likely this status carried over to their new society also, with many of these birds being more likely to have been disenfranchised. Their goal of elimination is therefore reactionary towards perceived threat. After all, the people who suffer when things go wrong aren't the ones at the top - it's all the people who sit at the bottom of the social rung; the vulnerable members of society who do not enjoy the same advantages as others.

Of course, the Hawk Party has built itself up into such a powerful group that they may have lost touch with this starting foundation - the only thing that remains is likely that reactionary fear. After all, people caught up in the actual conflict - Nageki, Hitori, Ryouta, and Hiyoko - see this kind of horrible bloodshed firsthand (firstwing?) and just want it to stop.

Again, it's not usually the people in these political factions who are the ones caught up in their conflict. It's the individuals who lack power or influence.

But that's just the political groups themselves. On an individual level, it's kind of interesting to look at and theorize where along the spectrum our core cast falls based on their species/breed.

Ryouta (rock dove) is actually rather indifferent towards humanity as a whole - he just likes Hiyoko. However, his witnessing of the Heartful House tragedy led him to abhor violence and unnecessary loss of life, and I'd imagine his mother's later illness solidified this. Ryouta doesn't seem overly interested in political struggles or the broader implications of a lot of things - he's actually a rather self-oriented character when it comes down to it (this is not a judgment, nor a bad thing! I love my boy!). Ryouta just doesn't want to lose people, really. A conflict would mean more loss, and rock doves seem to have to struggle enough as is.

Hiyoko (human) is the daughter of two diplomats, but interestingly, we don't get to see much of her political views on things - perhaps because even if she expressed them, it wouldn't really matter - she's not herself a diplomat, and humans are the lowest of the low - her going to a fancy school doesn't really change that. Social-wise, except with her friends, she is tolerated, not accepted. Yet, it's safe to say that Hiyoko strongly disapproves of people who flaunt their status - she's quick to not take crap from Sakuya, to get angry on behalf of Ryouta and herself over the gull clerk's assholery, and also to defend Miru and Kaku as living beings worthy of respect. Interestingly though, she also uses Okosan's status as a fantail to get Ryouta to let go of him and let him do whatever he wants so... it's kind of unclear what her firm beliefs are. Perhaps, as a human, she still values fantails more highly. I don't know honestly. Implicit bias?

Sakuya, Yuuya and Okosan (fantail pigeons) may share the same breed, but their experiences are highly different. Sakuya is largely separate from the human-bird conflict, as he is unlikely to be directly affected by it. As such, a lot of his story and development has to do with actually learning and un-learning about the world outside of the limitations of his "father's" classist views, which he simply mimics without understanding the larger implications. Yuuya and Okosan, on the other hand, may be fantails, but are also looked down on and often treated as inferior - Yuuya for being a "half-breed" and for his reputation, and Okosan for being closer to feral than a lot of other doves. Interestingly, these two show more interest and respect for the individual than Sakuya does, who often makes sweeping generalizations based on status - which makes sense to a degree, as they've been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, whereas Sakuya hasn't. Okosan believes that each person has their own "wonderful names" (read: identity outside of breed or status), while Yuuya is a genuine fighter for justice who is able to get to the heart of people, especially in Holiday Star. However, even though they have experienced classism, they still have certain privileges with regards to species/race - take Okosan's shock when Hiyoko and Ryouta are barred entry from his favourite store. None of them are quite as out of place in everyday society as some of the other birds here, and it's notable that "diverse" St. Pigeonations still apparently has a significant fantail student population.

Shuu (chukar partridge) is really interesting, as he doesn't particularly care for the politics of the Hawk Party, and yet his role as a killer/hunter of both his fellow birds and humans is an interesting reversal of the chukar being a game bird. Shuu also has a disability (his semi-paralyzed right side) which hinders him in bird society even more than most. His extreme, yet coldly logical solution to kill all humans to stop the fighting between them, could be as much his rationality, as his joy in the sadistic, as a reactionary survivalism (remember he was caught up in a human terrorist attack as a child - while overall he considered this beneficial to him, he also did lose much of his colour vision and the use of his right side, so it did leave him weakened). Shuu attains control by "flipping the script" as it were.

Tohri (golden pheasant) starts out in the Hawk Party, but much like his colleagues, doesn't seem to care much for their politics. Golden pheasants are game birds whose eggs can be eaten, but are more often bred and kept for their plumage - they're not prey, but they're not exactly pets either. All this puts Tohri in this interesting position of being somewhat in the middle of this conflict, and indeed he goes on to be a part of (found?) the Crow Party - an opportunistic group that seeks to benefit from the overall conflict. Golden pheasants are birds intended to be admired for their beauty and intelligence more than anything else, benefitting in some ways from humans without a strong connection or a reliance, and Tohri's opportunism fits nicely with that. (As an aside, our sole crow character, Albert, is also something of an opportunist, being an assassin on the fringes of society.)

Hitori and Kazuaki (button quails) are somewhat interesting. It would be both expected and understandable if Hitori held hatred for humanity after the Heartful House incident, or even before then, considering they were all war orphans. Instead, he doesn't seem to harbour any particular ill-will - he seems totally fine around Hiyoko, and her being a human has nothing to do with his reticence with letting Nageki hang out with her in the shrine universe. Kazuaki, too, doesn't seem to mind Hiyoko being human and isn't afraid of her any more than he is anyone else. While quails are game birds, with both meat and eggs being eaten, button quails are too tiny for that and are mostly kept as pets - they are considered cute, silly, and entertaining, though a bit too jumpy to be outright companion birds. The quails don't seem to experience too much in the way of speciesism (except arguably with the whole mistaken identity of Kazuaki's corpse... there may be a bit of an "all quails look the same" thing going on perhaps). At the very least, they are able to occupy teaching positions at a renowned school as respected intellectuals, and did go to university. Still, it's kind of a known thing that you don't put button quails with bigger, more dominant birds, since larger birds will often pick on them or even outright try to kill them simply because they're small and shy - this may, in hindsight, explain some of Kazuaki's demeanour.

Nageki (mourning dove) and Anghel (luzon bleeding heart dove) are the two who are uncommon bird species in Japan. Nageki is another war orphan, who would be forgiven for harbouring resentment for humanity, but instead is appalled at the violence and made a huge sacrifice to get it to stop. It's kind of unclear how Nageki fits into this society, as mourning doves are not prey or pets - they're wild birds. They live on the outside of the human world, and while Nageki exists within current bird society, he likely doesn't have a designated status within it. Nageki is unfortunately also alienated from much of the action due to his illness and later his untimely death - this is why a lot of Nageki's thoughts are somewhat from an observer's perspective, with his most emotional moments being derived from his rare direct experiences - specifically the Heartful House tragedy and the human killings he was forced into, which solidified a really firm stance of not wanting anyone to suffer like that. Anghel is another outsider, this time genuinely a foreigner, as opposed to Nageki. Again, Luzons are wild birds, not prey or pets, and so it's a bit unclear what his status is. This might explain why Hiyoko repeats Sakuya's remarks towards him without apparently realizing they're actually insults - Anghel is removed enough from the conflict she is familiar with that it seems she doesn't quite... get it. Again, Anghel's role is as this strange kind of omniscient observer, whose perspective is closer to the player's than to the rest of the cast. He definitely frowns on the Hawk Party's overall goal - the Demon Spores are evil to him, and his main objective is to stop them from spreading, as they would cause damage to both birds and humans. I attribute his morals to his mother having raised him right lol. The lack of a clear status for both of them may be why they appear to take the stance of judgment based on individual actions, but are not heavily involved in the conflict itself - while humans tend to like mourning doves and luzons, there isn't much interaction that goes on between them. Nageki and Anghel are simply less embroiled in bird society's human-derived status conflict, which makes them both outsiders and observers.

As a bonus note, Azami, Rabu and Kenzaburou are all species of birds that can be kept as pets (java sparrow, budgie, parakeet), which may account for some of their friendliness towards Hiyoko, and Kenzaburou's willingness to hire her. Kenzaburou is even a bit old-fashioned it seems - he sleeps in a cage, which implies his ancestors were probably pet birds themselves. It's likely he, in particular, has more positive views on humans.

...Please tell me I'm not the only one who spent ages thinking about the implications and workings of a fictional post-apocalyptic bird society. Also I hope this made sense I kind of went off the rails here.

[cherryatombomb]

i think ghost would really like animals. like as a coping mechanism he just tends to watch a bunch of nature documentaries just as background noise but just ends up absorbing himself in them

and he's a little embarrassed abt it bc oh big macho man simon ghost riley knows a lot of animal facts?? isn't that super cringe??

so he just decides he'll take it to the grave with him. yep nobody needs to know

(until soap. obviously)

he just initiates his ritual of putting on an animal documentary when he goes to sleep and soap is so confused?? and ghost kind of forgot soap was in bed with him LMAO

he goes to turn it off but soap encourages him to keep it on

occasionally asks him for some animal facts every day. once ghost stops thinking he's making fun of him he just enjoys telling him abt it. it's just a sweet bonding time for them

[lycankeyy]

Funkycule fun fact #2884782: because penilians are hypercarnivores, they have evolved out of the ability to taste sweet things. Due to this, the penilian equivalent of candy is typically based on saltiness. Pringles are like candy to penilians

[droppingartintotheinfinite]

when the dysphoria hits amirite

[juustozzi]

same anon who talk about wings au here are some more ideas/potential moments

winged people are rare and so they're aren't many stores for them so tenma has a few encounters with other winged players (like hayabusa) and or coach (like afuro) from a team that have to face next in a match

tenma , matatagi and minaho become friends more quickly cause they can relate so much with the struggles of taking care of their own wings and the feeling on flying through the air

it took awhile before tenma gave tsurugi another feather of his trust (because fake tsurugi had to where the feather to make sure tenma was convice he was tsurugi and accidentally took it when he left)

have fun with this, hope you enjoyed

hi! thanks for sharing more <3 (I went a bit overboard with this, sorry for a probably long reply...)

I like the idea of Tenma basically knowing (at least by face) a big part of other winged people of the area! Afuro made me thing about the customization of the clothes: with stretchy fabric, like jerseys and regulart-shirts, fixed wing slits work for pulling the wings through. with more formal wear, or fabrics that don't stretch, there could be different mechanics to get the fabric rest around the base of the wings; buttons like vests, or zippers/velcro, depending on the type of the clothing. I think Afuro would have very stylized and fashionable choices with these, showing off the tailoring instead of trying to make it look like a regular garnment!

tailoring can get expensive though, so I think outside of formal wear etc. the selection for kids and teens is mostly stretchy fabrics with standard wing slits. since the clothes won't fit them for long anyway, it isn't as usual to tailor clothes for youngsters. many also prefer baggy/loose coats and jackets, since stiff fabric can feel constraining for the wings, especially while they're still growing.

since the rarity of winged people, schools probably don't offer specific uniforms, but they're lenient with customizing it. I want to think that instead of paying a lot for a tailor, Aki helped Tenma to customize his gakuran! he can do the easy shirts himself, but the school uniform is from thicker fabric and sown to a specific structure, so it's a bit trickier to get neat. (Aki's not too crafty herself, but she does a good job with it!)

and yay for the galaxy bird gang! Tenma must've been so excited to get winged teammates, and even though the teams struggles to get together, they would surely bond a lot quicker than the rest. maybe Matatagi would get his character arc earlier, with Tenma getting closer to him faster, and pushing him more into the team?

also I think Matatagi would be a bit show-off with his wings, zooming too close past others and getting annoyed they can't keep up with him. he's very proud of his wings, and at first it looks as arrogance to others before they get to know him better. meanwhile, Minaho is kind of the opposite: he observes people and happenings silently and while he doesn't scare others on purpose by suddenly announcing his presence, he kind of finds it funny most of the times.

and oh, Tsurugi.. </3 sorry if this strays from your idea, but while I do think it would take a bit for Tenma to give out another feather, I can see it more as Tsurugi being devastated of losing his own in the first place (maybe he doesn't know the fake took it, and he thinks he lost it himself, and someone later tells him they saw the fake having it?) and he's feeling too guilty to tell Tenma about it.

at some point someone either accidentally reveals it or forces it out of Tsurugi, and after a bit Tsurugi and Tenma have a heart-to-heart and Tenma gives him another one. or something along the lines

thanks again! and if you ever get more I'd love to hear them!!

[cassafrasscr]

I still think about that 4SD where they ask Sam about FCG's fear of birds...

Sam: "I don’t think I like birds."

Everyone: "Why not?"

Sam: "Well, they don’t really smile. I like smiling, and birds can’t smile."

Taliesin: "They smile with their eyes."

And I'm just like, TAL'S RIGHT THOUGH. Birds DO smile with their eyes!

Presented as evidence: My Sock-Loving Child.

[abirddogmoment]

Do you know how specific scent training is? Like if you train a dog to find mallards they can find other ducks, but they're not going to indicate at sparrows for instance. So how specific is it?

Hi! So short answer - depends on the dog and how well they contextualize.

If you have a dog predisposed to finding birds, they're probably going to find all birds and then generally learn which ones you (the human) care about. So say for example your dog shows you a crow, a sparrow, a mallard, a teal, and a finch. You reward the mallard and the teal, and you ignore the others. Eventually your dog will release that you only care about some birds and their indication on crows and sparrows amd finches will fade.

If, on the other hand, you have to teach a dog to indicate birds from scratch, you might have to contextualize more. So you'd teach your dog that you reward when they look at ducks in a pond, and then they'd seek out ducks in a pond (hopefully). Then you'd have to teach that you reward when they find ducks in a field. Then ducks on a path in the woods. Then you might have to teach them that you don't care about herons in the pond. And so on and on, depending how quickly they understand what you're rewarding.

It really depends on what connection your dog makes in their puppy brain, and there isn't a good way to control that. But it's a fun thing to try anyway, especially if it's something you and your dog find enriching!