Papagaios, Life & Times on a Speculative Archipelago

Passage taken from “Return of Animals That Go Bump in the Night: More Real-Life Animals Behind Ghost Stories and Folktales From Around the World” by Patricia Rogers. Published 2006.

Tap tap tap.

It is late at night and you are far from home. The light of the full moon your only comfort, but deep in the gill even that comfort is minimal.

Tap tap tap.

You hear it echoing down the narrow gill, bouncing off hard stone. It seems late for someone to be working, but a miner burning the midnight oil is better company than the strange beasts of these remote islands.

Tap tap tap.

It is louder now, you must be going the right way.

Tap tap tap.

Louder still, just round this final bend. And then you see it.

You expected a man and here one stands before you, staring you down with wide eyes under bushy eyebrows. A large beard and drooping moustache cover much of his torso and a tall hat reached up.

Tap tap tap.

You expected a man, but this thing before you is not one, despite first impressions. It is small, not even two feet tall, its eyes stare without ever blinking, its never speaks, and despite the fact that its arms are unseen – likely hidden in its shaggy fur coat – you can still hear the tap-tap-tapping.

You remember now the stories told to you by the fireside about the sprites and fair folk of these Papagaios islands: the Whisperers who live in floating villages and the little people who take unwanted items to their underground homes. This is neither of them, however. This is the vale miner who ever wanders the mountains looking for precious gems which it trades with lost travellers in exchange for their souls.

~ ~ ~

The vale miner is a bird in the cavador family. It is a member of a group known as the axebeaks and pickbills which are closely related to each other. Unlike other cavadors, which are digging birds, the axebeaks and pickbills have taken to the trees. Being flightless however, they achieve this by climbing.

The large feet of the cavador, normally used to dig burrows and tunnels, are now tipped with sharp claws for gripping bark. Their toes have also lost their webbing - a feature of their seagoing ancestors that was repurposed for shovelling dirt – resulting in greater flexibility in the feet and in most species the ability to turn the inside toe 180 degrees to point backwards. The beaks of these birds remain strong, and the tip that once broke compacted earth is now also used in climbing, giving them a tripodal stance when moving in the trees.

The main difference between axebeaks and pickbills is dietary. All species are omnivorous, but axebeaks are predominantly herbivores and use their beaks to crack open nuts and seeds that other animals struggle to get into. Pickbills meanwhile favour carnivory and use their beaks to chisel away at the wood and widen openings to better access insects beneath the bark or smaller birds and lizards sheltering in narrow cavities.

They are not immune from predators however and are cryptically camouflaged so that when stationary they are almost invisible against the trees. The only time they risk being seen is in the breeding season when males grow brightly coloured beaks and tap their beaks against the wood in short, rhythmic bursts.

The only exception to this rule as regards camouflage is the vale miner itself, which is in fact exceptional in many aspects of its life. Unlike its relatives, this pickbill lives in steep gills and valleys, near the sources of streams in the upper reaches of the mountains where trees are scarce. It subsists on small lizards, land crabs and some vegetation. Rather than camouflaging itself against the stones and mosses of its home, this strange bird has opted for a different form of defense.

On the back of its head are large eye spots beneath bushy eyebrows. Other masses of feathers give the appearance of a moustache and beard. These feather formations are found in all axebeaks and pickbills, but are usually much smaller and appear like tufts and horns. The mystery in the case of the vale miner concerns whether its appearance is simply meant to frighten predators into thinking they have been seen, or if it is mimicking a particular animal, now extinct. The resemblance to a bearded human is so great that it is difficult to imagine the features as anything else, but some have suggested that the “moustaches” may instead be long fangs or clawed arms held up and ready to strike. These ideas are considered unlikely, as no fossil evidence of sabre-toothed animals has yet been found in the Papagaios islands.