Bubirds

After night falls in the sunflower forests of Serina in the cryocene and most birds have retired to roosts high in the branches, one is just waking up to hunt. By day they hid themselves in shadowy thickets and crevices, their dark plumage hiding them in shadow and their heads tucked out of sight. When the sun sets, however, the bubirds, a specialized group of nocturnal falconaries that first arose in the Tempuscene, raise their heads out from beneath their wings and peer around. Their eyes are massive and golden, with pupils that quickly expand from tiny pinpoints to huge, black circles, demonstrating excellent night vision. These birds have also evolved a crude facial disc, a feather arrangement that serves to amplify noises like a radar dish toward their ears, allowing them to hunt without using eyesight at all. For a few minutes after sunset the hunters preen themselves, readying their wings for flight... and then they lift off, fluttering from branch to branch, peering around for any smaller birds that have failed to hide themselves away well enough for the night.

The bubird hunts somewhat like an owl, but is more adept at hopping through the trees and even running on the ground. Its flights are short and relatively weak, only useful for short distances. Stalking along, it quietly takes quick flights from one perch to another and hops along the branches, listening intently and looking around for prey. When it spots a roosting bird it quickly pounces, but unlike its ancestors its feet do not play a major role in restraining its victims. Rather, the bubirds have evolved huge gapes and swallow their food whole. The bubird most frequently targets its prey from a slightly lower perch, leaping up, and before the startled bird can take flight, quickly closing the jaws over it, engulfing it head-first down its gullet. Prey can range from about the size of a sparrow all the way up to birds as large as one-third its weight, which are still swallowed in one piece.

All bubirds are nocturnal and well-adapted to hide in the shadows. Dark, often black feathers are typical for most species, with some having small white patches that can be kept hidden by day but are useful for recognizing conspecifics at night. Some species have evolved large, erectile crests along the edges of their facial discs which are used in sexual display. Such traits are generally important to identify one another as the same species, as different types of bubirds will readily eat one another if there is sufficient size difference, and females of all species are considerably larger than males even of the same kind. This allows for niche-partitioning, so that the sexes do not strongly compete over food, with males catching small animals and females primarily being adapted to consume larger birds. Solitary except for during nesting time, if a female is not in sufficient health to breed or simply dislikes a male attempting courtship, she may even occasionally cannibalize her would-be-suitor.

above: the longeared bubird is a large species of its group, though not the biggest of all. Both sexes are identical, with females as well as males having long crests used for courtship display and species-recognition, but females are up to twice the weight of males; a female is shown in the size comparison. They feed mostly on roosting ground birds and are competent ground-hunters that take flight only if threatened and to reach roosts to rest during the day.