Name: Clackaw (Sirp'Terry)

  Clackaws, an avian Ber, are difficult to describe singularly as the species may exhibit a dramatic amount of sexual dimorphism that exaggerates with reproductive maturity. They are incredible communicators, using a combination of vocal mimicry and feather coloration for high speed, long distance communication.

  Common across both males and females, is black and white feathered coloration. When not actively permuting coloration for communication purposes, this pattern is distinct to, and apparently chosen by, the individual. Every clackaw at rest has a unique visual identity comprised of a black and white pattern of feathers.

  They have disproportionately large eyes from Ankarran standards, with smaller beaks, with a thin flexible membrane on the interior that allows for complete closure and sealing of the mouth, which would otherwise be impossible due to the inflexible beak.

  Their wings are flexible, allowing for rigid and flexible forms for active flight, gliding, and brooding. Brood-mothers are identifiable by their extremely long trailing tail features in a triple fork with short middle ‘tine’.

  Clackaw feather shafts are thick and colored similarly to their feathers — they are capable of rapid partial rotation, which selects whether to expose black or white plumage on a per-feather basis. This is done only on a limited subset of feathers, apparently to avoid degrading flight performance — though on brood-mothers this shift in coloration can be seen from some particularly powerful ground observation platforms, so it would seem that they move feathers in clusters.

  They have strong, opposable wing-hands, with each independent bone capable of strong grasp. They do not often perch on their feet as Ankarran birds might, but instead prefer to ‘hug’ vertically oriented objects suitable for roosting — such as branches, hair, or even fingers — with one or both wings.

  Their feet are attached to their wings by a thin membrane, but are flexible, though relatively small. They have only minor claws on both wing fingertips and feet, suitable for collecting and holding food items during flight. While capable of walking and perching, they are not optimally structured for doing so for long periods of time.

  Eyes are optimized for long distance vision, and while they are capable of seeing objects up close, their field of view is significantly restricted. They have excellent night vision, but poor color perception, falling below Human baselines.

  Three distinct sizes may be commonly found — the larger brood-mothers, the mid-sized — though still much smaller — immature females, and males.

  Brood-mothers may grow beyond two meters in length, not counting beak length, with a wingspan typically measuring four times their length.

  Females are approximately 60 cm prior to sexual maturation, with males being much smaller, at 30-40 cm — with wingspan ratios of approximately 3 and 2.5x, respectively.

  Clackaws are aerial by nature — in that they typically remain aloft most of their lives, roosting with their parent brood-mother, which never descends once a brood is formed.

  Males and females at or past fledgling stage will descend in a group — females sometimes singly or in pairs — at any time of day or night to feed. Clackaw are suited to foraging and hunting in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. They are capable of limited submersion hunting, but are not particularly capable swimmers, and so typically restrict themselves to surface or near-surface hunting, relying on short dives.

  When forced to roost at ground level, they will locate the largest tree, bush, or other suitable cover which permits for all nearby members of the wing to roost.

  Clackaw are found anywhere in the skies — as their brood-mothers glide slowly at high altitude at a near-constant pace. Descending wings of males and immature females will visit to forage, and then ascend with their collected bounty.

  Their tolerances for temperature have no known lower bound when attached to a brood-mother, though they prefer to remain warm otherwise. High temperature tolerances are less than most Ber, but still high compared to Humans.

  Highly social, clackaws will tend to roost together at all times — with their parent brood-mother, or if they have descended to feed, then they will commonly be found as a cohesive group.

  Immature females are more likely to be found individually, and will often serve as go-betweens between wings of clackaws or other Ber.

  Individuals performing communications duties will diverge from this grouping only as long as necessary to complete their task. Those sent very long distances will guest-roost with an amenable brood-mother during their potential months-long return, but will attempt to return to their original wing, where feasible.

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  It has been noted that when color is presented as an option, they seem to prefer bright, colorful objects — possibly due to their weak color vision. Warm, fuzzy or furred is similarly strongly preferred.

  Like most Ber, clackaws have a diverse omnivorous diet, consisting of seeds, berries, insectoids, worms, small animals, and are quite willing to scavenge.

  The key differentiator is that most food is returned directly to the brood-mother, where it is digested and secreted as a calorie-dense and nutrient rich lactate, which is consumed in-place by the roosting males and, to a lesser degree, immature females.

  Immature females are more likely to consume found food in place, rather than returning, even if they themselves still roost with a brood-mother.

  While usually constrained to the notes section, their preference for hot liquids is worth noting — herbal, berry, or seed teas, as well as sweet juices of any type are strongly selected for.

  No details of Clackaw genesis are known — other species do not know or will not discuss Clackaw genesis or other specifics for reasons unknown.

  The known Ber'Duun brood-mothers are effectively unreachable as they never descend from their high-altitude flights themselves, thus any inquiries must be made through their Ber broods.

  Anyone with information regarding Clackaw genesis is strongly recommended to report details, however inconsequential, to the authors.

  Clackaws begin life as broodlings, with only the bare beginnings of their plumage. Once their nesting claws mature sufficiently to grasp the special roosting feathers, they will leave the broad neck-sack and attach to a single roost feather until they fledge.

  Brood-mothers are females which are or will give birth — they are much larger, some up to two meters in height, with a disproportionate wingspan that serves as a roost for immature females and mature males.

  Juveniles will stay close to their brood-mother, leaving only to forage for food to return to the wing.

  Adult males may roam a significant distance from the wing, but will generally attempt to return before they would be forced to roost elsewhere.

  Immature females are known to overnight — or over-week, as they do not need to sleep often, before also returning. If they begin maturation into brood-mothers, they will form a small starting wing which will then break off from the existing brood-mother, usually following behind for a period of weeks or months before finally choosing a new migration pattern, at which point they will remain in-flight until the end of their lives.

  Births are live, from within a brood-sac, where broodlings will remain until they migrate out to hang from the roosting feathers of the brood-mother, where they will mature until they fledge and become capable of independent flight.

  Clackaws are not born in groups, but instead are fertilized and mature singularly, with the brood-mother selectively fertilizing ovum to fill gaps in their roost from any recently roosted adult male.

  At any particular time there will be a variety of broodling, nestling, fledgling, and adults.

  Clackaw males are relatively short-lived — fifteen years or so seems a common upper bound, though as always there are exceptions. Immature females live longer, perhaps twice that long — it is speculated that this period allows for the development into a brood-mother if conditions permit.

  Brood-mothers can live centuries, and as with genesis information, the exact limits can only be speculated. Some groups which use brood-mothers for communication report using the same name and coloration markings as their distant ancestors once did, but as brood-mothers circle the planet unceasingly, never descending, there is no way to independently verify this.

  All Clackaw are highly social and fall into melancholy or depression if isolated for periods of more than a few days.

  Males do not tend to stray from their mother bird for long, descending only to hunt or forage and return with the food to their parent, but when they do, they will tend to descend in groups of ten, to upwards of forty — half of a fledgling and mature brood from a single brood-mother. Females are much more likely to be found individually or in smaller groupings.

  While they tend to prefer the company of other Clackaw, they are perfectly happy to guest-roost within groups, though it is cautioned that invitation of one is an implicit invitation to all other Clackaw in the vicinity and one might find six chattering males roosting in the hair of themselves and nearby companions within a matter of hours.

  Clackaw intelligence is hard to measure, due to their capability to directly mimic any sound they have ever heard in their lifetimes.

  Additionally, it is unclear if they understand the content of the messages that they propagate.

  Ber'Duun Clackaw are believed to be highly intelligent, capable of feats of encoding and decoding that outstrip any known mechanical systems.

  Clackaws are one of the few Ber'Duun which do not always result in another awakened in their progeny. It is believed that an awakened brood-mother can selectively choose to awaken their young, though reports indicate that all female offspring of an awakened brood-mother will similarly be awakened.

  Clackaw will not aggress except to defend the brood-mother, and even then it is largely constrained to distraction against predators.

  Of note, however is a secondary hazard — All Clackaw, regardless of sex or age, are perfect vocal mimics, able to replay sounds of arbitrary complexity and duration. Hours-long conversations between unsuspecting parties have been reported as being perfectly reproduced. Do not make any utterance or sounds around a Clackaw that you would not want to spread around the globe by the end of the day.

  Clackaw vocal communication is limited to flight speeds, but their feather-color based symbolic encoding language can be transmitted instantly from one to another within visual range. While their eyesight is exceptional, individual males are small and thus tend to transmit localized messages, whereas brood-mothers are capable of seeing and communicating with one-another at distances in the hundreds of kilometers.