Pteese

The pteese - a word pronounced with a silent p as in pterosaur - are the most common archangel metamorph birds of the hothouse age. By 280 million years post-establishment, they are found worldwide in every habitat except for the open ocean and the inner depths of caves. All hothouse species evolve from a single ancestor, the ptundra ptoose. Like all the surviving archangels of this era, both big and small, the pteese belong to the seraph sub-clade, which practice parental care by brooding the pupa of their chicks and protecting the hatchlings from predators. This is a reversion of behavior from the earliest archangels, which merely buried their pupa and left them to fate on their own.

Eight ptoose species are seen below, including the smallest and the largest. They range over not only a spectrum of size, but also of the prominence of their ancestral gliding hind wings. Retained in some of these species and still used to facilitate more energy-efficient flight, in others they appear as vestigial digits on their way to being lost, and in still others they have already disappeared. Loss of the hind wing has occurred independently in hothouse pteese at least three times.

1. Pstellar pswan, the most populous and archetypal of the pteese, little changed from its ice age precursor except in subtle shifting of pattern and slightly reduced size. The most abundant ptoose, the pstellar pswan is a grassland-dweller of Serinarcta, feeding on vegetation, especially in the wake of herds of thorngrazers, its total population exceeds 2.5 billion birds. Pteese formerly occupied the niche now filled by mowerbirds, and most except for this species have radiated into forms that now explore different lifestyles. To avoid direct competition with the mowerbirds, the pstellar pswan is now a nocturnal species and flies and feeds mainly by night; its eyes are larger than its ancestor's to better catch dim planetlight. It is also a better swimmer, able to float on calm water in a way mowerbirds cannot, which lets it feed in flooded regions of the soglands inaccessible to mowerbirds, even on grass and other flora submerged up to a foot below water. Nesting is solitary, monogamous pairs; males construct a domed nest of woven grasses in tall grass, in which females brood five to ten pupa. Chicks stay with the adult for as long as a year, able to fly within days. Like most seraphs, the young are more insectivorous than the adult, hunting bugs disturbed by the grazing of adults in the flock. Call is a generic goose-like honk, not melodious, but often repeated in flight.

2. Passager ptoose, the widest-ranging species, found over virtually the entirety of the hothouse world on both continents. An adaptable species with a diet high in seeds, this smallest of the clade weighs only 14-18 ounces and has become a specialized long-distance flier with a compact, dove-like profile in flight. Passager pteese disperse widely over the year, moving in small flocks of twenty to fifty birds so as to require less resources than bigger groups, avoiding mowerbirds and covering hundreds of miles a week. They land occasionally to fill up on fallen grains and the freshest sprouts of new grass. Nesting is communal to an extreme; all passager pteese, a worldwide species, collectively gather to mate annually at only around five nesting colonies across the world, each of which may support up to 200 million adults on average. In boom seasons, some colonies may split, producing six or seven total gatherings, while in other years most birds may visit a single colony which can swell to over a billion individuals. The population is subject to wide fluctuations, as reproduction is rapid when conditions are good but mortality can be very high as a result of disease outbreak and predation pressure at nesting grounds. Pair bonds are changed each nesting season and not retained outside the breeding season, and young are quickly independent, only spending a few days with their parents after pupation. The call in flight is a sweet, rising warble; males have a long, bubbly courtship song which is delivered in a dramatic downward flight from a height. Pteese in general have poorly-dormed fans of tail feathers, and to increase its agility in flight the passager has repurposed its hind wings into a rudder, letting it steer and turn in flight, and to elegantly land with greater grace than any other ptoose.

3. Summer skycutter, a strongly migratory species with strongly differentiated adults and juveniles. The mature skycutter is a strong-flying and highly migratory crane-like bird with a sharp, probing beak, which feeds on seeds, tubers and soil invertebrates. It is strongly diurnal, to the point of avoiding night entirely. Flocks fly annually from arctic circle to antarctic circle and back again, avoiding ever seeing a winter, and always benefiting from the flush of green growth that comes to each land as soon as its respective dark winter lifts away. Two subspecies exist, differentiated only by their behavior which has resulted in their reproductive isolation. One breeds in the north pole, the other six months later in the south, and the two meet only in the middle, and now never mate together. Clutches are large, up to 20, and chicks of both forms are very unlike the adult, being short-necked, wide-mouth insect-hunters that leave their parents' nest within a single day of hatching. For the first year of a skycutter's life, it doesn't migrate. Young chicks remain through the first winter following their birth, the only night they will ever see, for unlike the adult, they benefit from the darkness as it brings out a great number of insects, which the chick is adapted to eat. Juveniles have large, dark eyes and are skillful fliers, entering forests to hunt, traveling in large flocks and often being predated by the nocturnal world's many hungry enemies. By spring, huge populations have been cut down to a more manageable number, and survivors undergo a rapid shift into a more terrestrial niche like that of the adult over the following 6 months, during which their eyes remain the same size but their heads grow larger, rendering them more proportional. By one year of age, they are functionally mature, though only half adult size, and now they will follow the adults on their migration across the world, reaching sexual maturity the following year. Skycutters have entirely lost their hind wings, for they are among one of the wader lineages, which often fed while walking in mud and water - a habitat in which their hind wings were a hindrance.

4. Reedwhit, a small, rail-like bird of Serinarctan wetlands, shy by nature and only exceeded in its small size by the passager ptoose. Reedwhits weigh just 1.5 lbs and are very cryptic, avoiding enemies by hiding in thick reedbeds near calm water in the soglands. Not very social, they are often spotted alone, probing mud for seeds and insects, or paddling on the surface of water with their large, partly webbed feet. They represent an intermediate condition of hind-wing loss, having lost the feathers but not the cartilage-based digit that supported them. It now functions as a fourth toe, dispersing their weight as they stride over loose sediment and floating water plants, preventing them from falling in. Reedwhits are unique for the longer than average juvenile life stage, which can last three years, during which growth is slow and the diet is comprised of flying insects. Only juveniles disperse, and over their childhood they can travel across continents, so that the reedwhit is very widespread even though once adult it is territorial and rarely flies more than a few hundred feet. The prolonged juvenile life stage may exist to ensure genetic diversity by letting populations mix freely over long distances. Young transition to adulthood very quickly, their legs elongated and their beaks growing narrower over just 3-4 months time, during which the bird relies mainly on stored fat to supply its transformation, and often holes up in a hiding place - often a cementree - until the changes are nearly complete. Because of this, the adult reedwhit is around 1/3 lighter than the juvenile just before maturity, as it burns a lot of calories as its body re-structures for its adult niche. Young reedwhits have shrill peeping calls, which become a steady din in large flocks. Adults have only hoarse croaking voices, rarely heard. Nesting occurs singly in thickets, with only the female brooding a clutch of up to 20 unusually small pupa that leave her care within a few hours of emergence. She can lay up to five clutches a year, uncommonly fecund for a ptoose, as her young do not demand any attention once born.

5. Stunning startlewing, the heaviest ptoose of the era, and a semi-flightless species endemic to the Trilliontree Islands. Part of a radiation of island-dwelling herbivores with climbing tendencies, startlewings have large sharp claws and only fly as juveniles - in adulthood, their wing bones become increasingly dense and no longer hollow, becoming defensive weapons and too heavy to gain lift. Startlewings, growing to 85 pounds, are aggressive and solitary birds. When threatened, adults flash the underside of their brown wings to reveal fiery red and yellow feathers with dozens of eerie eyespots which shimmer and produce a loud rattling noise as the quills strike together, intimidating would-be predators as well as same-species rivals. Males fight by pummeling with their wings, striking with claws and punching with their wrists, as well as using their sturdy bills to bite the faces of one another, which have become defended by thick, red growths of keratinized skin. Males protect multiple females in a given territory from enemies and other males but don't assist in incubation; as an island species with few enemies, clutches are small and may comprise of just a single chick, which does not bond with its mother and instead quickly clambers up into the forest shortly after hatching. Diet of all life stages is dominated by leaves, with some insects and fruit when available. The voice is a powerful, low-pitched rumble. Hind wing is entirely lost, but leg retains feathering above the toes; coming from a second clade of waders, startlewing ancestors lost this digit independently of the skycutter.

6. Clingoose, the closest relative of the startlewing, and a smaller but equally aggressive animal. Clingeese can fly as adults, but very rarely do. They feed on leaves, and have a slow metabolism, so that such exertion is energetically expensive. Males are adorned with a large knob-like growth on their bill, and will fight rivals if pressed, but prefer to posture and call aggressively with a bellowing honking voice to avoid a physical confrontation. The forearm claws are sharp and the fingers long and adapted to grasp, and the clingoose very rarely leaves the canopy, where it often rests clinging tight to a tree trunk, its mottled brown plumage blending in with its surroundings. The wings are especially flexible, letting the clingoose hang from branches using only its forearms, which are better at grasping than its hind feet. Females nest alone in tree hollows - rarely on an exposed fork in a tree - making a nest of twigs and moss in which three to six pupa are brooded. The young stay with their mother for around six weeks; they closely resemble her even from their earliest age, and like her they can fly, but will rarely do so, preferring to climb close beside her; she may carry them as she leaps to bridge a gap between trees too wide for them to make.

7. Gluoose, a small but boldly marked black and white ptoose of drier upland grasslands in a disparate range of northern Serinarcta and the clearview mountains region of Serinaustra; two slightly different subspecies, differentiated by size, with the northern (pictured) being almost twice as large. Very common where they occur but absent from much of the world between these ranges, they form large flocks and occasionally can be blown off course from familiar ranges by storms, resulting in the formation of the southern population. Their most notable characteristic is their application of a novel secretion they can shoot from their backsides as an anti-predator defense; they produce a white, glue-like liquid that is very sticky, and can be ejected for a distance of up to 20 feet. When collected on the plumage of another bird, it gums up feathers and can prevent a bird from keeping itself insulated or even staying airborne. The weaponized component is a form of latex, which is not produced by their own bodies but by symbiotic gut flora in the colon, specifically a form of yeast fungi. Glueese each have a limited store of their defensive latex and can take weeks to regenerate it, so they posture defensively and ruffle their brilliant striped feathers as a warning before they take aim. Though any one individual in a flock may only be able to produce a small amount of latex, the gregarious nature of the species means that an enemy cannot attack just one, but will meet the whole flock head on. An enemy met with the defenses of dozens of glueese can find itself entirely coated in glue and completely unable to fly or perhaps even to breathe, if the material collects and congeals in their airways. For these reasons, the gluoose is given a wide berth. Glueese nest in monogamous pairs, and do this colonially in open areas on the ground, relying on their defenses to keep nest-raiders away. Chicks stay with their parents for a few weeks, being better fliers but already similarly marked to the adults with black and white feathers, and a diet composed mainly of grass and seeds. The call is a high-pitched cackle. The gluoose retains small hind wings used for soaring flight.

8. Elegander, the tallest ptoose at up to 7 feet high, yet built very lightly and weighing just 70 pounds. Unlike startlewings the elegander is still a skilled flier, and its very long legs let it run and jump up into the air with exceptional grace. The adult is mostly solitary, traveling only in pairs, and even then only during part of the year. They feed on leaves of shrubs and saplings, being browsers rather than grazers, and this diet in conjunction with their need for open spaces to take flight means they are only found regularly in the relatively uncommon habitats of savannah and glade, where both food and open space is available in one area. This means that in any given part of the world, the elegander is extremely rare, and yet it is such a strong long distance soarer, with long and completely developed hind wings, that it can find suitable pockets of habitat, and so it can be found almost anywhere on land, in both northern and southern continents. Males advertise their readiness to mate with extremely loud and yet eerily beautiful rolling calls, produced from a large hollow sinus at the front of their skulls, from high in the sky, their pitch-shifting, rising and falling voices resembling alternating chorus of trumpets and tubas. Males, too, are drawn to the songs of other males, so that flocks of hundreds and sometimes thousands will gradually gather together, the males competing for later-arriving females with their song. Pairs are temporary, lasting a single nesting cycle, which takes around six months and is not repeated annually, for it is an exhausting job. Eleganders lay extremely large clutches in excess of fifty young, which during gestation increase the mother's weight so much that for up to 4 weeks she loses her power of flight and must rely on her mate to protect her. Each member of a pair must incubate half the group, doing so nearly continuously with very little time for rest or feeding for over a month. Yet once born, the chicks quickly fledge and disperse. They resemble their parents not at all at this age, being small and swallow-shaped, predators of flying insects and not at all interested in the foliage the adult consumes. The emergence of all chicks in a colony is synced to within two days, so that the young can flock up in their thousands for safety from flying predators in their first few days when they are still somewhat ungainly fliers and not yet practiced at avoiding threats. The adults leave within a day of their youngs' departure, needing to feed and refill their depleted stores of energy. Soon, only a region of flattened grass and abandoned scrape-like nests in the soil remains, as the eleganders of all ages disperse across the world, returning to their lonely lives. Young remain mostly airborne for the first full year of life before gradually transitioning to their adult forms over up to ten years; the middle stages of growth resemble smaller pteese, and involve feeding omnivorously on all manner of small plants an animals nearby water. They will not mate before their eleventh summer, but from then on have few enemies and may live in excess of 90 years, breeding every two or three summers.