Swumps 

The swumps are a genus of large, majestic, and mostly aquatic trunkos descended from the gentle bloblump. All swumps now share thin, elongated necks and streamlined bodies, and all of them feed by dabbling, in which they turn their rumps up in the air and reach their necks down underwater to graze on vegetation along the bottom of shallow water. Their feet are very large and serve as paddles still made up of lobes rather than webbing, but they rarely walk far from water, and their legs are set far back on their bodies to provide quicker swimming at the expense of being very good at running. Though all swumps share these basic traits, the several different species are differentiated even at a great distance by their coloration, which is unmistakable in most. All swumps have a Serinaustran distribution, favoring northern coastal regions; they may be found in both salt- and freshwater. In addition to the black swump, there are several other species, including the two below.

The swamp swump is the southernmost species of the genus and the most terrestrial, though this is only comparatively - it is not a fast runner, and its posture is awkward and upright, countering its legs set low on its body. Like all swumps, it is a creature very fond of wet places, and a strong swimmer with wide lobed feet. But swamp swumps differ in their feeding preferences, partaking in a wider range of plant food, including land plants in their diet and even trees; they browse on waterside branches as much as they dip below the murk to feed on what grows beneath, using their very long necks to reach both above and below. Perhaps this is because their favored habitats - enclosed, gloomy swamp wetlands, crowded by old growth trees that limit the sunlight that reaches the ground - are less productive and support fewer water plants than more open and unencumbered environments. The longdark swamp is not a solid expanse of water but rather a complex matrix of both submerged low-lying areas and elevated islands, going on for many hundreds of miles; the swamp swump's greater ease traversing these land areas as it seeks out waterways is due to this specific feature of the region's topography, as it must come ashore much more often than other swumps, and not only to rest. Its feet are thus smaller, its claws sharper, and its legs longer than all other members of the genus; once it finds water, however, it is no less buoyant, and floats easily at the surface. Generally living in shallow water, often enough that its feet still touch the bottom, the swamp swump does not dive and appears all but incapable of it. Any depth it needs to reach in order to find food it can manage with its five foot long neck; when reaching for browse on land, it can stand to a height of up to twelve feet. When winter brings darkness and leaves fall, they feed more often within the water, consuming not just dead and dying plant material but also small animals, especially little fish and crustaceans that feed on decaying organic matter. A very versatile feeder, their winter diet can also include up to 25% mushrooms foraged on land. With a strong sense of smell and an extraordinary sense of touch with their facial flanges, they are unbothered and feed easily even in total darkness throughout the long-dark winter.

Swamp swumps are a gregarious species and live year round in flocks, rarely less than six to ten animals, but usually not more than fifteen, which may include many relatives but are not strictly familial units. Though these groups are loosely territorial toward other groups, aggression is very reduced from related species and largely limited to ritualized posturing that clarifies boundaries with little risk of harm to either party. Even then, it is only when females are brooding eggs or when chicks are very young that even this level of conflict is likely to arise.

This trunko exhibits a very boldly patterned, featherless facial 'mask' of highly contrasted black and white bands, which are visible even in low light and even from quite far away, being useful for long-distance social communication and species recognition. Yet while both sexes may at first seem to wear the same masks, the face of the female is monotone, but that of the male reveals hidden iridescence when struck with the dappled light that reaches through the canopy above, unveiling a brilliant tapestry of blue, green and violet. The display then shimmers like oil on water, each color swirling and shifting into the others as the male angles his head in different ways. Males use their patterns to attract mates, positioning themselves in sun beams to light up their cryptic markings when seeking to impress a mate or re-affirm old pair bonds. These structural colors have the benefit of vanishing if the swump is threatened by a predator; as it darts away into the gloom, its face returns to a seemingly black and white dress that helps break up its outline in the shaded surroundings.

Snowy swumps are the most aquatic of their genus, and are relatively small, with shorter necks and shorter legs, but much larger lobed feet, than others; they come to land only to rest on nearshore sandbanks, and to molt their feathers once every year, and when they do so they stand up to 9 feet high. They spend nearly all of their lives in water and are the most skillful divers among the swumps, able to hold their breath for five minutes and kick their way down over 100 feet to forage on the sediment below. Snowy swumps are more carnivorous than herbivorous and much of the diet is bivalve molluscs and benthic fish, which they catch by sifting through sandy substrate with their flanges and then grasping and killing with a hooked beak hidden between them, like that of a squid. Other components of the diet are floating seaweeds and carrion; the snowy swump's hooked bill makes it more effective at tearing meat than any other species. Their adaptations for diving mean that snowy swumps are not as buoyant as their relatives, and they float low in the water, with only their necks and the tops of their backs normally exposed - they can control the height they sit at by adding or releasing air from their large lungs, and can sink below so that only their heads emerge if they feel threatened.

Snowy swumps are social animals and lack territories, wandering widely throughout the year in open water and up Serinaustra's many river deltas. They favor saltwater but are not exclusively tied to it, and may at times venture over 200 miles inland. Typical flocks of ten to twenty birds consist of bonded pairs, their young and a variety of siblings, aunts, uncles and other relatives of varying relatedness as well as unrelated mates; both sexes can disperse to new flocks, but may also remain, and which sex tends to leave or not at adulthood is largely dependent on the sex ratio of the group they are born into. The group living of the snowy swump is necessary to protect their young, which are raised on open water. Unlike other swumps, both sexes trade off incubation duties, as the water pressure at depths would crush the egg whilst the parent dives. This is done every 24 hours, very carefully, with both partners aligning their brood pouches (located at the top of the breast) as one ejects the egg and the other catches it.

Chick are carried on the adult's backs most of the time for several months before they are strong swimmers. The young will take only short dips into the water with supervision, though they can do this when just a few days old, and chicks are extremely buoyant thanks to their very fuzzy air-holding downy coats that prevent them from sinking. Chicks and adults keep in contact vocal contact, and this is the noisiest swump; their raucous, trumpeting calls carry far, and they are always heard before seen. During courtship, males and females sing together in duet with rolling melodies, each filling notes in the other's incomplete song which, if sung alone, is heard with long pauses that the opposite sex's verse is intended to fill. Yet same-sex pair bonds are not rare in this species, comprising up to 20% of couples, and in these instances, a sort of composite song is usually sung where both sing their own sex-specific version of the tune but staggered so as to fill those gaps; the result is a song with a very noticeable echoing effect.

Double female pairs will mate with males but remain devoted to one another, raising two chicks - something only possible due to the support they receive from the greater group in childcare. Male pairs assist other couples in childcare and become highly invested babysitters, sometimes carrying six or more chicks at one time as other adults forage; these couples can take on a higher work load, as they don't invest any time or energy in producing or brooding eggs. Male pairs in general have a very high 'maternal' instinct and will at times even attempt to adopt other young seabirds, even those much smaller and not very similar in appearance. Sometimes this is even successful, as the parents naturally feed their own chicks for several months before they can dive on their own and protect them from all predators with fierce aggression. As in other swumps, males are more aggressive; if the flock is threatened, all of them will approach the enemy head-on and mob it, sometimes killing other animals several times the size of any one of them with lacerating bites and blows from their beaks. Due to their adaptations to eating carrion, this is the only swump that could - rarely - be called a big-game hunter, as they will eat predators killed in this manner. When traveling in very deep water, where they are less capable of overpowering predators which would strike from below, flock travel in tight formation so as to resemble a single far larger animal rather than many individuals.