#trying to understand what bird fusions mean ecologically

[spicesprouts]

There's a fusion in the animals of Palia that makes my brain roll around and want to inspect, for however much the design intentionally or unintentionally informs ecology. This is basically me talking about things to myself, but you're welcome to come along for the ride. The four I'm touching on are Flutterfoxes, Palcats, Plumehounds, and Silverwings, but I lost steam so I'll get back to it later. I'm also tacking on what this means for Sunny's lycanthropy involving bird aspects at the end, just as a head's up.

Flutterfoxes have floral imagery in the petal-like layering of their ears, with Fennec Fox-adjacent features. This plant-like camouflage could be reminiscent of a mantid or other insect, and their small stature compared to plumehounds could lean into a different food source niche for the two similar but divergent species? There are no flutterfoxes in game that can receive food, but it could be playfully assumed by the associations (camouflage, their butterfly-evoking name) they might enjoy a diet of insects and plants (or photosynthesis if legitimately a flora-fauna fusion). Maybe they were bred into domestication or "fancy" colorations and the features were exaggerated beyond a wild type, and the proclivities for insect-hunting became more pronounced? Palcats also have stated butterfly imagery, rather than the naming convention for flutterfoxes, so it could be argued that they in fact are the bred-down domesticated pets compared to flutterfoxes. There's something to be said for fusion versus patterning (Flutterfoxes/Plumehounds/Chapaa versus the less-fused Sernuk/Muujini/Palcats), so maybe I'll put a pin in Palcats in general.

Plumehounds are also foxlike, but their name (barely!!! to be fair) implies they may lie closer to fox-like canids (think South American foxes in genus Lycalopex like the gray and bat-eared foxes, but also some of the wolf-like canines in Canini Canina). They also have a proclivity to fungal matter, plant matter, and meat, which in both sub-sections of canids tracks as facultative. Their feathers suggest an influence of some sort of bird, though while the instinct to consider birds of prey as said influence seems reasonable, I'd argue their ability to enjoy a variety of foods besides meat may lean them into the realm of birds the likes of parrots or Galliformes. I considered corvids, too, but the plumage on the neck isn't as rounded and textured as I'd like compared to Tau's. By Tau's proclivities to mushrooms and root vegetables, I could see a case for a ground bird, and Tau's tendency to take and bury or chew things I've already alluded to feeling very parrot-like.

Silverwings are expressly described as birds of prey, and owing to the nest sites' proximity to fishing pools and that they migrate long enough distances to sleep on each other while flying, I'd suspect their lineage leaning in the vein of sea birds like Osprey. Their physical appearance leans Galliformes a little, understandably evoking peafowl with coloration, but they give off more Secretary Bird or Seriemas (another South American bird that does not fly much). It's interesting and I think something to think about with Plumehounds and Flutterfoxes as maybe being opportunistic (scavengers?) rather than abject obligate carnivore predators, and their morphology referencing in two ways more docile/not predatory winged creatures.

With respect to a strain of lycanthropy, or other therianthropies in the vein of what I'm imagining for Sunny (maybe created naturally from Flow as an, idk, virus essentially, but not giving her specifically any more attunement to Flow than any other humans), I'd think the design choices of a lot of creatures that have explicity predatory behaviors over scavaging might lean towards design choices similar to the silverwings.

Which, as the only other bird (besides Peki which I'd be glad to see too), I'd wonder how their version of the Phoenix falls in terms of influence. Is the deity a predatory bird (the way we'd assume a dragon is a predatory animal, and with the intelligence level of Majiri and humans I'd guess discerning at least)?

Unless Flow-based viruses/curses/what-have-you have deific implications, I don't think any deific designs should really play a role in therianthropic morphology, ultimately??

Idk I am full of thoughts and ponderings and I like animals but have such limited energy to deep dive any more lmao.