Avia

From Fantasy Novel

Current revision as of 10:31, 19 July 2007

Avia
A typical male Avia
Order of Creation	Fourth
Avg Height	7 Feet
Avg Weight	240 Lbs
Skin	Feathered (various types)
Hair	Feathers
Eyes	Bright Yellow, large pupils
Current Location	North western mountains

Avia are large are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals which inhabit mainly the north western mountainous territory of the main continent. Once distributed across most of the mountainous regions in the world, they have been hunted down and driven back to the northwest mountains, where they now are entrenched.

This species possesses a very broadly built body, making them extremely powerful. They possess an particularly wide wingspan (roughly 20 feet), and are able to also walk much like humans, though their feet also serve as mighty talons while not walking.

Avia have very large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, and have extremely keen eyesight to enable them to spot potential prey from a very long distance. This keen eyesight is primarily contributed by their extremely large pupils which cause minimal diffraction of the incoming light.

[edit] Name

Author explanation - The name "Avia" is an obvious reference to "Avian" which is a term to describe things relating to birds. It has not specific naming rationale other than it works as a reference to birds, and sounds good.

The term Avia is a name given to the race of humanoid birds by Humans. Given their relationship to traditional birds, the human name of Avia is clearly meant to describe a bird-like being. The Avia themselves refer to themselves by another name in their own language - but that language is so foreign to men that none have ever recognized it, thus even the non-human sentient beings refer to these creatures as Avia.

[edit] Appearance

The plumage of an adult Avia is evenly brown with a white head and tail. The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but females are slightly larger than males, displaying sexual dimorphism. This has lead to male Avia being known for speed and agility, while the females tend to be known for sheer power. The beak, feet, and irises are bright yellow. The legs are unfeathered, and the toes are short and powerful with long talons. The highly developed talon of the hind toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes, as well as to balance the creature when it walks erect. The beak is large and hooked, with a yellow cere.

Proportionally, the torso of the Avia makes up a large portion of its body. It has small, but powerful legs - allowing for easy flight as well as easy walking (though running can be difficult for them - they prefer to simply walk where they are going if unable to fly). It has somewhat long arms, allowing the creature to have a sufficient wingspan to carry it through the air - though its flight is not that efficient as its cousin, the Eagle.

The arms of an Avia are detached from the wing at the elbow, however, when flight occurs, the Avia places its free swinging forearm inside a flight pouch in the wing, allowing them to form a solid wing for flight. This is adventageous, allowing the Avia to work with tools in the same way humans can, but also allowing for sturdy flight. Additionally, there is a joint halfway down the wing on either side, which is able to be folded up and tucked into itself, to allow "storage" of some type. This Avia a much longer wingspan than would otherwise be possible, and allows them to move freely when walking on land.

The plumage of the immature Avia is brown, speckled with white until the fourth year, when it reaches sexual maturity. Also, the immature Avia has more light feathers in the upper arm area, especially around the 'armpit'. When erect, a typical Avia is roughly 7 feet tall, and weigh roughly 240 lbs.

[edit] Abilities

Given the unique nature of this creature, it has a number of unique abilities that should be noted.

[edit] Unique Abilities

The most obvious ability found only in Avia (among sentients) is the ability to fly. Their feathered arms form wings, allowing them to take flight. This ability is not absolute however - due to the somewhat humanoid build of the creature, it takes more energy to fly than normal birds do - thus after some time and distance, the Avia will grow tired and require rest, requiring them to land and walk. Nevertheless, this flying ability is a great asset, one which has likely allowed them to survive, even while being hunted for as long as they have been.

[edit] Use of the Current

Avia feel the presence of the current, but are somewhat untalented at its use.

[edit] Habitat

[edit] Origin and History

[edit] Life

[edit] Birth and Early life

Chicks can be helpless or independent at birth, or be at any stage in between. The helpless chicks are known as altricial, and tend to be born, small, naked and blind; chicks that are mobile and feathered at birth are precocial, chicks can also be semi-precocial and semi-altricial. Altricial chicks require help in thermoregulation and need to be brooded for longer than precocial chicks.

The length and nature of parental care varies widely amongst different orders and species. At one extreme, parental care in megapodes ends at nest building; the newly-hatched chick digs itself out of the nest mound without parental assistance and can fend for itself immediately.[117] At the other extreme many seabirds have extended periods of parental care, the longest being Great Frigatebird, the chicks of which take up to six months to fledge and are fed by the parents for up to another 14 months.[118]

In some species the care of young is shared between both parents, in others it is the responsibility of just one sex. In some species other members of the same species will help the breeding pair in raising the young. These helpers are usually close relatives such as the chicks of the breeding pair from previous breeding seasons.[119] Alloparenting is particularly common in the corvids, but has been observed in as different species as the Rifleman, Red Kite and Australian Magpie.

The point at which chicks fledge varies dramatically. The chicks of the Synthliboramphus murrelets, like the Ancient Murrelet, leave the nest the night after they hatch, following their parents calls out to sea, where they are raised away from terrestrial predators.[120] Some other species, especially ducks, move their chicks away from the nest at an early age. In most species chicks leave the nest soon after, or just before, they are able to fly. Parental care after fledging varies; in albatrosses chicks leave the nest alone and receive no further help, other species continue some supplementary feeding after fledging.[121] Chicks may also follow their parents during their first migration.[122]

[edit] Sexuality, marriage, and reproduction

The vast majority (95%) of bird species are socially monogamous; although polygyny (2%) and polyandry (< 1%), polygamy, polygynandry (where a female pairs with several males and the male pairs with several females) and promiscuity systems also occur.[48] Some species may use more than one system depending on the circumstances. Monogamous species of males and females pair for the breeding season; in some cases, the pair bonds may persist for a number of years or even the lifetime of the pair.[100]

The advantage of monogamy for birds is bi-parental care. In most groups of animals, male parental care is rare, but in birds it is quite common; in fact, it is more extensive in birds than in any other vertebrate class. In birds, male care can be seen as important or essential to female fitness; in some species the females are unable to successfully raise a brood without the help of the male.[101] Polygamous breeding systems arise when females are able to raise broods without the help of males.[48] There is sometimes a division of labour in monogamous species, with the roles of incubation, nest site defence, chick feeding and territory defence being either shared or undertaken by one sex.

While social monogamy is common in birds, infidelity, in the form of extra-pair copulations, is common in many socially monogamous species.[102] These can take the form of forced copulation (or rape) in ducks and other anatids,[103] or more usually between dominant males and females with less dominant males. It is thought that the benefit to females comes from getting better genes, as well as an insurance against the possibility of infertility in the mate.[104] Males in species that engage in extra-pair copulations will engage in mate-guarding in order to ensure parentage of the offspring they raise.[105]

Breeding usually involves some form of courtship display, most often performed by the male.[106] Most are rather simple, and usually involve some type of song. Some displays can be quite elaborate, using such varied methods as tail and wing drumming, dancing, aerial flights, and communal leks depending on the species. Females are most often involved with partner selection,[107] although in the polyandrous phalaropes the males choose brightly coloured females.[108] Courtship feeding, billing and preening are commonly performed between partners, most often after birds have been paired and mated.[109]

[edit] Territories, nesting and incubation

Many birds actively defend a territory from others of the same species during the breeding season. Large territories are protected in order to protect the food source for their chicks. Species that are unable to defend feeding territories, such as seabirds and swifts, often breed in colonies instead; this is thought to offer protection from predators. Colonial breeders will defend small nesting sites, and competition between and within species for nesting sites can be intense.[110]

All birds lay amniotic eggs[111] with hard shells made mostly of calcium carbonate. The colour of eggs is controlled by a number of factors, those of hole and burrow nesting species tend to be white or pale, while those of open nesters such as Charadriiformes are camouflaged. There are many exceptions to this pattern, however; the ground nesting nightjars have pale eggs, camouflage being provided instead by the bird's plumage. Species that are victims of brood parasites like the Dideric Cuckoo will vary their egg colours in order to improve the chances of spotting a cuckoo's egg, and female cuckoos need to match their eggs to their hosts.[112]

The eggs are usually laid in a nest, which can be highly elaborate, like those created by weavers and oropendolas, or extremely primitive, like some albatrosses, which are no more than a scrape on the ground. Some species have no nest, the cliff nesting Common Guillemot lays its egg on bare rock and the egg of the Emperor Penguin is kept between the body and feet; this is especially prevalent in ground nesting species where the newly hatched young are precocial. Most species build more elaborate nests, which can be cups, domes, plates, beds scrapes, mounds or burrows.[113] Most nests are built in shelter and hidden to reduce the risk of predation, more open nests are usually colonial or built by larger birds capable of defending the nest. Nests are mostly built out of plant matter, some species specifically select plants such as yarrow which have chemicals that reduce nest parasites such as mites, leading to increased chick survival.[114] Nests are often lined with feathers in order to improve the retention of heat.

Incubation, which regulates of temperature to keep it optimum for chick development, usually begins after the last egg has been laid. Incubation duties are often shared in monogamous species, in polygamous species a singe parent undertakes all duties. Warmth from parents passes to the eggs through brood patches, areas of bare skin on the abdomen or breast of the incubating birds. Incubation can be an energetically demanding process, for example adult albatrosses lose as much as 83 g of body weight a day.[115] The warmth for the incubation of the eggs of megapodes comes from the sun, decaying vegetation or from volcanic sources.[116] Incubation periods last between 10 days (in species of woodpeckers, cuckoos and passerine birds) to over 80 days (in albatrosses and kiwis).

[edit] Diet

Birds feed on a variety of materials, including nectar, fruit,[52] plants,[53] seeds,[54] carrion,[55] and various types of small animals including other birds.[56] Because birds have no teeth, the digestive system of birds is specially adapted to process deal with unmasticated food items that are usually swallowed whole.[48]

Various feeding strategies are used by birds. Gleaning for insects, invertebrates, fruit and seeds is used by many species. Sallying from a branch and flycatching for insects is used by many songbirds. Nectar feeders such as hummingbirds,[57] lorikeets, sunbirds,[58] honeyeaters and some other songbirds is facilitated by specially adapted brushy tongues and in many cases bills designed to fit co-adapted flowers.[59] Probing for invertebrates is used by kiwis and shorebirds with long bills; in the case of shorebirds length of bill and feeding method are associated with niche separation.[48] [60] Pursuit diving is used by falcons and accipiters in the air, and by loons, diving ducks and penguins in the water. Plunge diving is used by sulids, kingfishers and terns. Three species of prion, the flamingos and some ducks are filter feeders.[61] [62] Geese and dabbling ducks are primarily grazers. Some species will engage in kleptoparasitism, stealing food items from other birds; frigatebirds, gulls,[63] and skuas [64] employ this type of feeding behaviour. Kleptoparasitism is not thought to play a significant part of the diet of any species, and is instead a supplement to food obtained by hunting; a study of Great Frigatebirds stealing from Masked Boobies estimated that the frigatebirds could at most obtain 40% of the food they needed, and on average obtained only 5%.[65] Finally, some birds are scavengers such as gulls and vultures. Some birds may employ many strategies to obtain food or feed on a variety of food items and are called generalists,[66] while others are considered specialists,[67] concentrating time and effort on specific food items or having a single strategy to obtain food.

[edit] Daily Life

[edit] Later life

[edit] Death

[edit] Language

Birds communicate principally using visual and auditory signals. Signals can be interspecific (between species) and intraspecific (within species).

Visual communication in birds serves a number of functions and is manifested in both plumage and behaviour. Plumage can be used to assess and assert social dominance,[80] display breeding condition in sexually selected species, even make a threatening display, such as the threat display of the Sunbittern, which mimics a large possible predator. This display has is used to ward of potential predators such as hawks, and protect young chicks.[81] Variation in plumage also allows for identification, particularly between species.

Visual communication includes ritualised displays which signal aggression or submission, or are used in the formation of pair-bonds. These ritualised behaviours develop from non-signalling actions such as preening, adjustments of feather position, pecking or other behaviours. The most elaborate displays are shown during courtship, such as the breeding dances of the albatrosses, where the successful formation of a life-long pair-bond requires both partners to practice a unique dance,[82] and the birds-of-paradise, where the breeding success of males depends on plumage and display quality.[83] Male birds can demonstrate their fitness through construction; females of weaver species, such as the Baya Weaver, may choose mates with good nest-building skills,[84] while bowerbirds attract mates through constructing bowers and decorating them with bright objects.[85]

In addition to visual communication, birds are renowned for their auditory skills. Calls, and in some species song, are the major means by which birds communicate with sound; though some birds use mechanical sounds, for example driving air thorugh their feathers, as do the Coenocorypha snipes of New Zealand,[86] the territorial drumming of woodpeckers, or the use of tools to drum in Palm Cockatoos.[87] Bird calls and songs can be very complex; sounds are created in the syrinx, both sides of which, in some species, can be operated separately, resulting in two different songs being produced at the same time.

Calls are used for a variety of purposes, several of which may be tied into an individual song. They are used to advertise when seeking a mate, either to attract a mate, aid identification of potential mates or aid in bond formation (often with combined with visual communication). They are used to claim and maintain territories. Calls can also be used to identify individuals, aiding parents in finding chicks in crowded colonies or adults reuniting with mates at the start of the breeding season. Calls may be used to warn other birds of potential predators; calls of this nature may be detailed and convey specific information about the nature of the threat.[88]

[edit] Customs

[edit] Birth

[edit] Marriage

[edit] Death

[edit] Naming Conventions