Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Ducks consuming anythubg is great cause majority of the time it’s the most feral fucking thing you’ll see but then billed fella was gentle at first
thanks to @enterprisery I am thinking about Trek-type bird aliens again. (yes I know TAS has bird aliens but I don’t mean those guys, okay?)
And you know I feel like I’ve talked a lot about what they would look like in terms of feathers and wings and such.
What is really important tho: Can they kiss? Can they fuck?
and I say, Why not??
I think instead of terrestrial bird beaks, they would have lips and such almost like ours. Inside, they would have hardened ridges instead of teeth, like an internal beak. Also their faces would be a bit sharper.
Also! Yes of course they can fuck. But they are birds. Tho many bird species do have penises, not all of them do. I think it would be interesting if they all just have cloacas with no phallus inside. I figure the surrounding tissue would be very sensitive. They prob could be fucked but it might not do much for them, bc like, why would it?
I also think we could just throw gender out the goddam window. Yes most birds have sexual dimorphism, but! Not all of them. And many species have same sex couples who “adopt” abandoned (or not so abandoned) chicks and raise them. I feel like the aliens would make little distinction between a family like this and one that has made its own egg, so to speak.
They definitely lay eggs. I think it would be exceptionally difficult for them to interbreed with the more purely mammalian races, but could possibly have success with Cardassians and maybe the Gorn?
Also they absolutely evolved from something that looked a lot like dinosaurs.
(Sometimes I think things like “what if the Hebitians had feathers?”)
anyway bird alien thoughts for the day! anyone have thoughts or ideas to add?
the long tailed silky-flycatcher is a thrush-sized passerine bird found only in the mountains of costa rica and western panama. females are duller in coloration than males and lack the signature long tail feathers. this species primarily feeds on insects, as their name suggests, but also takes fruit, with a preference for mistletoe. these birds lay only two eggs in a clutch, which are placed in a delicate nest made of lichen.
Oh!! gosh that’s tough actually. My first instinct is to say penguins, but flamingos are fucking badass.
Flamingos court and nest in highly alkaline lakes that would kill most other animals. They gather in huuuge flocks, like in the thousands. The lakes where they live sometimes freeze at night, so the birds are trapped and must wait until morning to free themselves.
There is a lake in Tanzania, Lake Natron, which supports 75% of the world’s flamingo population. There’s a bit about it in one of the nature docs that has come out in the last few years. Might be Planet Earth? Definitely worth watching and learning more about these incredible, and highly specialized, birds.
Penguins! I mean this is kinda tough bc penguins are a broad category!! You have your Emperor penguins (tallest), well known nowadays from March of the Penguins. But also Little Blue penguins (smallest)! Chinstrap penguins (one personal fav)! There is even a species sometimes called the Jackass penguin bc their calls sound like donkeys.
Not all penguins live in Antarctica. They can be found in S. America, Africa, and Oceania. There are even penguins above the Equator in the Galapagos! (but not the arctic! polar bears and penguins never meet in the wild) Some even spend the breeding season in towns among people. (If I can suggest another nature doc, Penguin Town is adorable)
Some have cool hair styles like the Macaroni and Rockhopper penguins. Rockhoppers lay their eggs in the same nest year after year.
We love how cute they look waddling over land, but they fly through the water. It’s beautiful and amazing to watch.
Another fun fact about penguins is they were named based on their resemblance to a northern bird, called an Auk or Great Auk, which is now extinct. Consequently, the genus “Pinguinus” is used for auks, but not for penguins, as they are not closely related. Taxonomy!
