Scareakeets

Scareakeets comprise several only distantly related lineages of scarreots and closely related skewers which have evolved similar body shapes with long tails and pointed wings for flying long distances. It is a non-taxonomic ranking. 

Brightly colored stippled scareakeets are a true scarreot, a very common species of the southern savannah woodlands are named for their speckled plumage. They travel in sizeable flocks foraging along the ground for fallen seeds much like budgies, and indeed they closely resemble parrots at a distance, their bodies shaped similarly by the same environmental pressures. Yet any resemblance falls apart up close, when the mantis-like flexing beak common to every scarreot is observed in action as it reaches forward to pick up a single tiny seed and crack it open by folding backward, letting the hull fall to the side and the kernel be collected by the tongue. Despite these specializations toward seed-eating, these birds are omnivorous, and supplement this diet with small amounts of meat, either scavenged or occasionally hunted opportunistically.

Stippled scareakeet chicks are raised in hollows within cementrees, the natural chimney-like structure of which moves warm out upwards and pulls cooler air from underground, and so keeps the nestlings cool. A social nester, a colony of as many as twenty birds cooperatively tends to the brood chamber and ensures the newborn larvae are well provided for, and unlike most groups of skewers, scarreot young remain with their elders after fledging, eventually aiding in rearing the next brood of chicks in this species and many others. Fledging occurs rapidly, in just six weeks, though full size is not attained for several more months. Newly fledged birds have wingspans of just eight inches, while that of mature adults can stretch to almost two feet. This size difference is used to niche partition with the adults and broaden the food sources available to the larvae; while adults can break nuts and heavily-protected seeds and fruit and the occasional small bird or other vertebrate prey, youngsters can collect fine grass seeds and other grain, as well as small insects. If either age class if unsuccessful foraging, the others will share their food with them, and so this allows the clan to weather food shortages and make use of a wider range of prey than would otherwise be possible. Adults will also share food with smaller juveniles for many months after they fledge if they are unable to find enough smaller food on their own. 

~~~

The bludgerigar is another species of bird called a scareakeet, but among all of them, this one is the most distant. Technically, this species is outside the true scarreots entirely, for it diverged before the seedsplitting scarreot had evolved, and thus still has some traits more in common with other related flickbills like daggerbills, namely a flesh-based diet. The bludgerigar is a living link between these two clades, with no other close relatives. Despite a distant relationship and differing proportions, it is around the same size as the stippled scareakeet, and coexists in the same habitat. This is unfortunate for the other scareakeet, because unlike any true scarreot, the bludgerigar is an obligate carnivore, and a predator of other birds.

Bludgerigars have evolved a novel mechanism to kill prey that is unique to its genus, and which effectively reverses the direction that the beak is adapted to deliver force. While true scarreots merely bite and crush their food, using force to pull the beak inward against the skull, these birds have developed an alternate technique which, at the small scales they exist at, provide them with greater force than their bite could muster by propelling it away from the skull in a punching motion. The tongue has a keratin hook at its tip which latches onto a complimenting hook on the upper mandible, pulling it tightly against the face. The rubbery joint that attaches the mandible to the cranium is extended the tighter the jaw is held closed, and when the tongue unlatches the mechanism all of the energy stored there is released at once, causing the mandible to shoot forward at a high velocity, approaching 45 miles per hour directly into its target. At such a close range, this is usually fatal.

This lovebird-sized flickbill hunts singly, sneakily targeting other birds around its own size as they are roosting in trees at dawk and dusk, and flicking them in the head, either stunning or killing them outright. The bludgerigar then tears into the carcass to feed, using its hooked tongue to pull out the softer inwards, then gnawing on the bones and muscle with crushing beak movements that rend it into swallow-able portions. Unlike stippled scareakeets, the "bludgie" doesn't flock. At most, it flies in pairs, which generally only come together to raise young in a tree hole nest. When feeding chicks, bludgerigars tear meat into narrow strips and cart them back and forth to the nest hole for their young. Females often spend the first few weeks inside the nest hole to protect their offspring from predators - their punches are powerful enough to break the jaws or limb bones of many small, arboreal predators and to bruise larger ones enough to discourage them from coming inside. During this time, they rely on the male to feed them as well as the chicks. Chicks stay in the nest until they are fully adult-sized, which takes about five months from hatching as a larvae no larger than a jellybean. They then follow their parents for another month or so and learn to hunt, already being strong fliers from their first foray outside the nest. But as their hunting technique is simple, and mostly instinctive, there is no real learning curve and the chicks soon leave their parents, able to terrorize their fellow little birds without further assistance.