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Ancestor: Blue Sparrow
Male Blue Beardbird
Female Blue Beardbird
Temporal Range:
Temporal Range:
Evolved: 2 Myh
Extinct: Not yet
Geographical Range:
Geographical Range:
Location: East Catland in the South shrublands and plains, but is still in the process of moving across the continent.
Viable Habitat: Shrubby grassland and shrubland where the dry season is not severe.
Size: Largest: 24 cm beak to tail, Smallest: 9 cm beak to tail
Dietary Needs: Beardbirds are agile insectivores, able to pick insects out of the sky. This makes them a predator of bees, butterflies, moths, smaller flies as well as more accessible prey such as insect larvae, beetles and land isopods. Although not invertebrates they will also catch and eat small lizards. During seasons where invertebrate numbers are low some larger species of beardbird will seek out water invertebrates at a calm water edge. These include snails. They will also eat seeds and grain when they can find nothing else. They opportunistically eat fruit in season, especially in summer adults eat fruit to keep up their energy when feeding chicks.
Life Cycle: The male and female commit to each other for life, but due to a heightened aggression meant for male-on-male competition, they are also more aggressive and first to act in general life, such as when trying to mob or distract a cat away from the nest. This means that they have a higher mortality rate than females. Females have backup suitors because she is likely to outlive her committed mate.
Although a male and female stay together all year, year-after-year, they use the cooler drier winter as a rest period between reproducing. In the spring they either repair an old nest or build a new one for the rest of the year's use.
Beardbirds are generally monogamous, but must keep reinforcing their bond or it might break down. Here it's the male's turn for feeding and the female's turn to incubate the eggs. The male is using some of his free time on affection, bringing the female something tasty instead of having it all for himself. Males and females both have to work to prevent their mate from having offspring with another bird, dividing their energy or leaving entirely.
Juveniles stay with their parents for an extended time, even when their parents have moved on to raising their younger siblings. The juveniles gain life experience and learn how to raise the chicks using their younger siblings as training. Some even lay their first eggs in the same year they were born. Because of this, birds born at the start of the year have a great advantage over those born at the end. It could be argued that the final brood is sacrificial training, because the survival rate of the end of year chicks is so poor. For those born at the end of the year, their survival depends largely on the generosity of their siblings during leaner times, and their parents when they are exhausted from the year. Although winters aren't icy or snowy, there is a drop in productivity and rainfall, and the birds become mroe aggressive towards each other in the competition for food.
Other: They all share the characteristic of longer or more decorative feathers under their neck and chin that can be flexed. Even females have a hint of this though the feathers are usually shorter and have a more plain, non-contrasting colour.
Species:
Species:
The above described species is the blue beardbird, a large species for the genus, similar in size to the common blackbird of earth. It isn't the only species by far, there are at least 30 species across the East Catland continent. A tiny sample is shown here.
Micro Beardbird- The smallest species of beardbird is only a mere 9 centimetres from beak to tail and lives in shrubby grassland and shrubland. These tiny, short-lived birds can reproduce up to four times in a year, but only live up to 7 years. Here a male tries to court a female by showing her a visually stimulating hopping dance. His "beard" is black and iridescent, the reflected colours changing depending on the angle of the light. So when he puffs out his feathers suddenly the colours show as a flash. The frequency of their song matches their size but the loudness does not. It's a piercing high pitched whistle, which would be almost inaudible to older adult humans but shrill to anyone younger. The male's courtship song is not very complex but does incorporate just a few notes. Most other vocalisations have either a single note or sliding one note to another. They also have a squawk or buzz for aggression or alarm, which is smooth almost like a hiss.
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