#like kestrel and osprey etc etc

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

a lil Peril scribble <3

[crow-aeris]

So i’ve been thinking (shocking, really) about the world building for my reverse robins wingfic.

ike, sure, it’s a little fic and ppl prolly won’t notice, but i just cant help but speculate.

in this au, everyone is born with wings unless afflicted with a certain illness, disease, or genetic defect that leaves you with no avian traits (which is the excuse the kents use).

but how would having wings influence the infrastructure? well, i’m glad you asked! cities are more compact because there isn’t really as big a need for transportation unless you’re an aves that’s just not built for long-distance travels like various passeriformes birds.

planes still exist, but they’re utilized by the avians who aren’t able to fly long distances. avians who have wings like albatrosses or terns or other soaring birds would probably require licenses to do their annual migrations and travels- same applies to regualr migritory species like ducks and geese- where the instinct remains despite not needing to migrate.

of course, with the constant migration through countries, i think there would be more mixing of races and ethnicities especially within the migratory bird communities, so there would probably be less overall hostilities.

now, there will still be discriminatory and hateful ideals, and some are shown in my fics. For example, Gotham’s elites are mostly made up of raptors and birds of prey like eagles, kites, kestrels, hawks, falcons, ospreys, owls, etc- birds who actively hunt down mammalian or lizards for prey (in the real world i mean), that is because of displays of powers. Scavengers like condors, vultures, buzzards, are regarded lower on the social ladder but not as low as perching birds and song birds simply because of their ability to have sustained flight.

like i mentioned briefly, songbirds and perching birds (passerines) are regarded lowly in general due to their “weak demeanor” and overall flashiness, which gives them the reputation of being only suitable to work in brothels and such regardless of gender (but especially dudes where the aves species exhibits sexual dimorphism, eg. cardinals, peacocks, golden pheasants, etc.)

there are definitely some exceptions, being corvids. some cultures have corvids as villans, whereas others may portray corvids as intelligent and charming.

now, we arrive to genetics. im still not 100% sure how i want the phenotype of an avian to be passed down. so far, it’s mainly just sons are the same aves as their fathers (like thomas wayne, bruce, and damian are all harpy eagles, but martha wayne was a kingfisher and talia is an imperial eagle), but im not sure abt daughters. genetics is messy, but i think i’ve managed to sertle on a 50/50 chance of being born either the same aves as their mother, or their paternal grandmother. like if damian had been born with xx instead of xy chromosomes, then he’d either have been an imperial eagle like talia, or a kingfisher like martha wayne. intersex people exist too, and i think their wings would be a blend between both their mother and father’s.

now for the the supers and the other metas:

as mentioned previously, the kents claim that their adopted son had a genetic disorder that basically prevented him from growing wings (or just left him in a state similar to humans before they were all “cursed” by a diety to have wings, or whatever. in the dcu, that probably woulnd’t even be too far fetched), so clark lacked a major social component to his childhood. without wings and a tail, others would have a harder time reading his emotions, seeing as these appendages are crucial in nonverbal communication between avians, and that gives clark a leg up in reading other people, but having them not understanding what he’s thinking.

now with jon and kon, they have two VERY different situations. for jon, since his paternal side is wings-free, i just gave him lois’s ave- western kingbird- instead of making him no-winged. kon, on the other hand was a test-tube baby, so it was a toss-up on whether he’d get lex luthor’s purple martin wings, or clark’s no-wings since they’re both guys. I think kon would’ve enjoyed wings, so i gave him the purple martin wings. Plus, they’re pretty much invulnerable, and their wings are no different.

diana and the other ppl from themyscira wouldn’t have wings since they aren’t human, and same applies to the other jl members who aren’t humans.

on a wholly separate note: the lazarus pits. here, not only does it give you white streaks in your hair, it’ll bleach out your feathers. so liek if a peacock was thrown into the pit, not only would they die and come back manic, their feathers would make them look like piebald, or have different markings or white ticking.

anyways, that’s the end of my long post, and i hope yall enjoyed listening to me speculate and talk about birds and my silly little guys!!

[junpeijackflash]

Welp, I Guess I’ll Talk About My Maximum Ride Rewrite Now

I promised I’d post about my rewrite soon, totally not expecting to do it for at least a few weeks. Then I opened up my doc after like a month and wrote two chapters in two days.

So, now equipped with a stronger drive to write (at least for now) I’ll share some details on my rewrite project. I’ll be putting this under a cut because holy fuck I did not expect to write this much:

The full title for the series is going to be Fly On, Maximum Ride. The individual book rewrites are going to be from song lyrics (or song titles? haven’t decided). Incidentally, the “Fly On” part of the title also comes from song lyrics.

Why, you may ask, am I doing the cliché AO3 “song lyrics as the title” thing? Because music ended up having a larger impact on this series than intended. What started out as me listing each flock members’ favorite bands and songs somehow wove so deeply into them that I cannot remove it.

(I’m aware kisses4butterflies on AO3 also has a music thing going in their rewrite. I came up with my version independently, and I do think it’s cool we had similar ideas)

Now to what people actually care about: the story and characters 👀

First off: Jeb never died/faked his death. He is still living with the flock as we speak, leaving the house every so often to get groceries or supplies for the flock. Sometimes he’s gone for a few days, sometimes weeks, sometimes a bit longer. But he’s still a part of the flock’s life. He trains them, teaches them, makes sure they’re healthy, rewards them when they do good, etc.

Ari sadly does not exist. I could’ve tried to come up with something for him, but I removed him from the plot so early on there’s no way to squeeze him back in. Maybe he could’ve been living with the flock as a normal human kid, but I feel like that would’ve just made him Gazzy Without Wings so :/

The house is…different. I don’t want to say much on that now, but just know the flock isn’t waking up with the sun or going on daily flights around the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. They go outside to train and occasionally play, but only when Jeb lets them.

Max, Fang, and Nudge are probably the only real physical fighters of the bunch. Iggy’s extremely good at assembling traps and weapons he can use, but he doesn’t have the same training as his siblings. Gazzy is training to be a good fighter, and training with Iggy on building things (he’s much more eager about the bombs than Iggy is), but he’s still a kid and he’s still learning. Angel is a six year old, and she’s also slightly lagging behind on her motor skills, so safe to say she is not good in a fight.

The flock still looks somewhat human-like, but not enough that they pass 100%. Their wings are massive, for one, and they can’t just fold them up into their backs. They need bulky jackets and pants to squish their wings inside if they want to hide them. They also have feathers along the backs of their arms and legs. Their pectoral muscles are larger and they have broader shoulders, all to help support the wings. They have smaller and rounder bird eyes with raptor vision, and they’ve got hollow bones and air sacs just like birds do.

In terms of what birds the flock’s wings are based on: Max = golden eagle, Fang = peregrine falcon, Iggy = osprey, Nudge = american kestrel, Gazzy = red tailed hawk, Angel = ferruginous hawk. Their eyes also match the birds they’re based on.

Everyone in the flock has pretty noticeable scars. Max has a large one on her cheek. Fang has several long ones across his chest. Iggy’s eyes are basically a scar on their own. Nudge has scars on her hands that flare up in pain. Both Max and Gazzy have scars around their neck in the same places. Angel doesn’t have scars yet, but she’s going to get some soon.

The kids fully believe they’re freaks of nature who cannot live outside of their home or else they’ll be hunted down or taken back to The School.

The flock all consider themselves siblings. This does in fact mean no Max-Fang romance. Honestly I wouldn’t know what to do with it even if they weren’t siblings. I have 1 (one) planned romance in book 2, and it doesn’t involve either of them.

There’s not de facto leader, since Jeb is still there. Max, Fang, and Iggy all take up different roles when he’s gone to help around the house.

Max and Fang do have a really close bond, though. They were cage neighbors at The School for as long as they can remember, and they developed a very close friendship, always looking out for one another, always ready to do anything to save each other. Even now, four years after leaving The School, they’re constantly there for each other, helping deal with trauma the only ways they know how.

Of course, when Max and Fang aren’t physically or mentally able to help, Iggy’s there to be the emotional support for his siblings. He’s one of the oldest kids, so he’s treated as such, James. Admittedly, there is A Lot to Iggy that won’t get unpacked until after book 1. But he’s still very blind. Still very skilled. Still very gay.

Nudge, being one of the younger three, got to have a slightly happier childhood, free to play with dolls and be a kid. She still struggles with nightmares and flashbacks, but not to the degree that her older siblings do. Now that she’s getting older, she has to train more, something she hates. Just like in canon, she really just wants to be a normal girl. She’s scared of people, but also fascinated by them and wishing she could live like they do.

Gazzy barely remembers anything from The School. It definitely had an impact on him, but the few memories he has are implicit childhood ones that are more sensory than anything. He’s the most innocent of the kids, but he’s also very aware of his siblings’ struggles and tries to help when he can. He’s willing to fight, despite his total lack of experience.

Angel, unfortunately, absorbed plenty of bad memories as a baby, when she couldn’t control her powers very well and overheard everyone’s nightmares. She’s aware of what happened at The School, but she tries not to bring it up because it makes her siblings sad. She still has nightmares about it, still remembers things she shouldn’t. However, memories don’t quite compare to experiencing the real thing... 

Gazzy and Angel are indeed biologically related instead of just found family. I’ve put a bit of emphasis on that being different. Not in a way that invalidates found family, don’t worry. It’s just that I personally believe if you already have a found family dynamic and are now including blood siblings, there should be some significance to it, because otherwise why do they need to be related if everyone is already family? Basically: Gazzy and Angel are very very close. They love each other, they play together, they barely ever argue or fight. They’re babies, and I will protect them (I say as I put them through several back-to-back traumatic events)

Speaking of biological families…uh, most of the flock doesn’t have any. Max isn’t Jeb and Dr. Martinez’ kid, the flock doesn’t go on a hunt for their parents that goes nowhere. In this world, a good chunk of the test subjects made through donor eggs and sperm that’s been genetically altered in advance and raised in artificial wombs. Yeah, sure, they’ve got donor parents out there somewhere, but it’s not top priority for most of the flock. They’ve got guardians looking out for them, and when they don’t they’re just fighting on their own.

Despite not being related to Dr. Martinez, Max is still Latina. I didn’t change any of the races - Fang is Asian, Nudge is black, Iggy and Gazzy and Angel are white - except for adding some clarification on Fang, since Asian is a very broad term (he’s got DNA from Southeast Asia and East Asia, more specifically The Philippines and South Korea). Again, stuff that will be more relevant after book 1.

Some kids are donated by real people, though, usually altered in very, very early stages of development and monitored heavily until they’re born. Families sign a waiver promising a nice paycheck to cover all medical expenses, and a disclaimer of possible permanent damage to the body or death. There is one member of the flock who was donated to The School this way. I’m not telling who yet.

Ohhh boy the Erasers. I have so much to say about Erasers, but I’ll have to keep it short. 

When I started this rewrite, I had the question: “Why do we never see newly made Erasers? They can’t just start out as full-grown adults.” So, in this rewrite, we have child Erasers, which the flock refers to as “dogs”. They age quickly, so they do look like full grown adults when they’re three or four, however it doesn’t last long, since rapid aging doesn’t exactly stop. They live for roughly seven years max, but most of them outlive their fighting use before that. 

Full-grown Erasers are stronger, tougher, and are experts at following orders since it’s all they know. Dogs, on the other hand, are wild and violent. They’ll tear into anything they get their hands on and they’re harder to control, since they’re still learning. Itex utilizes them both.

Also of note on Erasers: they’re officially just Lupine hybrids, and the Eraser nickname was made up by the various children at The School, because they only ever came to the cage room to take away the unfortunate kids who didn’t live long enough, or the kids who were too sick to keep on living, effectively “erasing” them.

The School is a nickname that Gazzy came up with after they left. He still didn’t really understand the bad place they came from and how it was affecting his siblings, but kids on TV always talked about school like it was the worst thing in the world, so he figured that must be where they came from. He used it a lot, and it stuck with the rest of the flock too. 

Did I mention there’s more mutant kids? Because there’s more mutant kids. A LOT of mutant kids. 296 of them at The School alone, with over half of those being Erasers/dogs. They have to make a lot, since you never know which ones will succeed, which ones will be used for non mutation-related testing, and which ones will fail.

Where do they get the money for so many research babies? The flock doesn’t know any of this, but Itex is massive. Governments are willing to pay outrageous prices to fill their military with Erasers, and the research Itex provides from studying their mutants have cured diseases and provided better medical treatment for ordinary people around the world. The human experimentation is an open secret (though granted most people don’t know the entire process). Most of them can’t do much, however. Itex is very, very old, and it’s far too powerful for your average Joe to stop on their own.

Also there’s no “save the world” plotline. There’s some saving the world in there eventually (not now, but eventually), but it’s not a predestined thing that Jeb tells Max. Max wasn’t created to save the world. She and her siblings were created for something else...

...Anyways, that’s about all I have time for right now. I might post more details later, but feel free to hit me with a DM or an ask if you have any thoughts. Currently the rewrite is sitting at 23 chapters, which means I’m juuust over halfway done with the first draft lol. I don’t know when it’ll be out. I work on and off and I’m not super consistent. But hopefully I’ll have something done within the next twenty years. :P

[aaronymous9]

Has anyone else noticed that like Skywings are the most villainized tribe in the text by far? Like I don’t think Skywings are bad or anything I’m just saying that with certain interpretations of the text the writing really makes all Skywings seem “evil”? Or at least morally gray. This is probably really poorly constructed because it’s just something I’ve noticed but the only Skywing who doesn’t really do anything “bad” in the books are Sky and Cliff. Cliff being a dragonet and Sky being raised outside of his tribe, without fire and a character who is very much infantilized by the text. You probably could make an argument for Ruby as well and that’s really about all the “good” Skywings. For the morally grey Skywings you have Osprey, Kestrel and Peril. Osprey didn’t really do much wrong but I believe he supported Scarlet and was portrayed as kind of pretentious ( or at least that’s how I interpreted it ). Kestrel is physically abusive and really fucking mean, I think that one is pretty obvious, she does have a good side but only characters such as Sunny really cared about her. And Peril, while she has a redemption arc she killed presumably hundreds of dragons before the events of the first book, and is portrayed as unhealthy obsessive which is a generally negative trait in writing. I’d also like to mention Flame here, who was portrayed as murderous and ready to harm other dragons. Then of course, there is Queen Scarlet who was one of the biggest antagonists of the 1st and 2nd arc to an extent. And to clarify, I’m not really sure what I interpret from this observation, either that Skywing’s culture is meant to be shown as bad ( like guys the biggest and most recognizable part of their culture is an arena where dragons are forced to KILL eachother ) I think this interpretation could work, it was kinda the same with the Icewings and book 14 showed that it could be changed so the next generation of Icewings would be… less rude, dragon xenophobic and generally bad people. Also not to mention some of the only Skywings portrayed as morally good being very young dragonets or Skywings who’ve barely even met a Skywing before. The one problem with this, is if that’s what Tui was going for, I really don’t feel like it was portrayed very well? Like whenever dragons mention problems with the Sky Kingdom such as Queen Scarlet, killing firescales in their eggs, the arena, etc. nobody tries to do anything about it? It’s assumed that with Queen Ruby’s rule the Skywings will get much better but I really don’t think it’s portrayed as well as when Snowfall broke the Great Ice Cliff due to the lack of Skywing perspectives and insight into their kingdom. Not to mention that the only neutral or good Skywing cultural aspect is… being religious. Like that’s super interesting I just feel it’s quite odd? I’ve said this before but the fact that most tribes most recognizable cultural aspects are about dragon murder, dragonet murder, mistreating dragonets or just generally being assholes is kind of concerning. This could be done well sure but when Icewings have so little to their culture in the books that fans get mad their society’s worst feature gets destroyed is a bit of a worldbuilding fault in my opinion. Also about Skywings and Icewings, I just really think it’s odd that the only “good” Skywings and Icewings are ones who got a redemption arc, dragonets or ones who did not grow up with the culture. The literal only exceptions to this rule would probably be Lynx and if you stretched a little bit Ruby. It just kinda paints the whole tribes as grumpy assholes which is kinda odd considering that is literally the stereotype used to make fun of the two tribes in the books? Just feels weird for a kids book to lowkey confirm a stereotype instead of try and have the main character rebel against it.

Sorry for the weirdly written ramble but point is, oh my god the worldbuilding is so lackluster and even when big chances happen in the Wings of Fire world it feels like nothing has even changed because we didn’t get enough time to see the culture of the tribes before things changed. Anyways, if Tui retired and handed off the writing of the Wof series to me I could not do better than her but what I would do would be try and improve the worldbuilding and make longer books centered on each tribe and it’s culture. ( Imagine Clay’s book except it’s much longer and in that length where Clay is staying with the Mudwings you learn so much more about Mudwings and what their life and culture is like )

[noimnotdeadyet]

another art from our game

its Shay Obsidian/Kurosaki Shun from Yugioh Arc-V. yea i kinda had a yugioh arc-v phase-

he’s a skywing .-. which actually a bit of sense since he uses Raid Raptors, which are falcon/birb based, and sky dragons have names based off birbs like... Osprey, Kestrel, Peregrine, etc. etc.

[davepeta-posting]

Hey. I wrote a research paper on my special interest. Read it?

The phylogeny of birds of prey defies expectations, as their genetic relations do not seem to match phenotypic expressions. In most animals, similar appearance indicates a close relationship, as with felines. In birds of prey, closely related birds will often appear drastically different, while some who are genetically very different from one another seem similar. The diversification within families, combined with many cases of convergent evolution, led to birds of prey having been incorrectly grouped.

The classification of birds of prey, as with most animals, came well before DNA testing, and so they were split into groups based on observation. With additional scientific research it has become clear that certain aspects of this classification were incorrect, such as barn owls being an entirely different family than true owls, or falcons not being raptors. Raptors are eagles and hawks, where falcons are actually perching birds [Jaggard, 2018]. Corvids, or Corvidae, refers to crows, ravens and allies, but these are not considered birds of prey, as will be discussed later. Falcons are often misclassified as hawks, or close relatives thereof. Many falcons are even referred to as hawks in their names or nicknames. For example, the peregrine falcon is often called a duck hawk because it hunts other birds.

Eagles have a reputation for being majestic beasts who soar through the skies and can bring down prey of staggering sizes. This is true for some, like the golden eagle, who have been known to prey on antelope and sheep [National Eagle Center]. Bald eagles, however, are fishers when necessary but are primarily thieves and scavengers, stealing  prey from osprey, another bird of prey, and sometimes even from vultures. Eagles are as diverse in what they hunt as is possible, preying on anything from rodents and small fish to deer. Eagles hunt by soaring over their prey, sighting them and diving down to make the catch. While they cannot reach the incredible speeds of the peregrine falcon, they are quite adept at snatching prey off the ground or out of the water and carrying it with them to a safe place for feeding. Fishing hawks are also able to swim, assisting them when the fish they catch are to large to carry in the air.

Eagles and hawks are justifiably famous for their eyesight. On a clear day, eagles can sight a rabbit from two miles away. While hawks are not quite as impressive, they still have sight more than eight times better than that of humans.

Eagles are much larger than other raptors, in the range of twenty pounds. Even many large hawks are about eight pounds. Certain vultures are able to grow even larger, but less consistently. Hawks are more of a jack-of-all-trades than other birds of prey. They are in the very middle of the size range of birds of prey, and are decent at all the things that other birds specialize in. They have a much wider ecological niche than the other raptors, being able to hunt a greater variety of prey.

Vultures are evolved to be scavengers much more efficiently than even their bald eagle cousins. They have almost no feathers on their heads and neck to keep blood and gore from sticking to them as they eat, as they sometimes need to stick their beaks far into carcasses to reach meat. They have extremely acidic gastric juices, which allows them to kill the bacteria that cause cholera and the virus that causes rabies [James 2016]. They are invaluable to the environment, getting rid of animal corpses before they can fester and spread disease, and they keep insect populations in check by competing for food. Many vultures, especially black vultures, will in fact hunt their own prey when carrion is hard to come by.

Vultures are endangered in their environments for many different reasons, though mostly due to human intervention. In Kenya, farmers will poison the carcasses of their cattle that were killed by lions, so that when the pride returns to feed, the lions will die off. This also kills the vultures who eat both the cattle and the poisoned lions. In India, drugs intended to assist cattle with joint pain causes kidney failure in vultures that feed off of them after they die. The Indian population of vultures has declined by 96% in only ten years. As a result of the decline in vulture population, conservation efforts are being put into place to provide vultures with safe food and medical care, in addition to attempting to regulate chemicals harmful to vultures.

Owls are closely related to raptors, and therefore quite far from falcons. Unlike other birds of prey, they are nocturnal and hunt mainly using their hearing, in addition to their night vision [Ponder and Willette, 2015] . Their other advantage is that owls have evolved to fly near silently. Owls have wings that are proportionally much larger than those of any other bird of prey, giving them more lift per flap and so less need to flap. They also have much less aerodynamic feathers than birds evolved for speed, and this fluffiness acts as a muffler for the noise of their feathers rubbing against each other in flight [Mahmood, etc. 2014].

Strigiformes, the order of owls, contains two families. Strigidae, or true owls, and Tytonidae, or barn owls. Tytonidae includes fewer than twenty species, while Strigidae represent twenty five genera. Owls are one of the oldest land birds, with lineages going back seventy to eighty million years. Only in the modern day have they begun to go extinct, due to humans destroying their habitats and displacing both them and their prey. The laughing owl of New Zealand has gone completely extinct due to habitat loss [Ponder and Willette 2015].

Falcons differ strongly from other birds of prey. While eagles, hawks, and other raptors have a close common ancestor, and even vultures are quite close, falcons are much more closely related to the songbirds they hunt than they are to raptors. While raptors hunt prey on land, and occasionally fish, falcons primarily target other birds. They dive on their prey, sometimes reaching speeds of 240 miles per hour. While most falcons are carnivorous, some will also eat insects, like the American and European kestrels. Falcons will also use their beaks to kill their prey, where raptors hunt solely using their talons [National Geographic]. Male falcons are referred to as tiercels, meaning “one third” in Latin, as they are about one third of the size of females.

Falcons are perching birds, the furthest birds of prey from raptors and the others. Their closest relatives are parrots, and yet they look like slightly smaller versions of raptors. Falcons are an amazing case of convergent evolution, having developed essentially the same talons and beak as raptors. These developments are advantageous to hunting birds, and as such developed independently in falcons and the common ancestor of the other birds of prey.

Peregrine falcons were formerly endangered due to DDT and other pesticides being consumed by the birds they preyed on building up in their digestive systems. Rather than just killing the falcons who were exposed, DDT causes their eggs to be less firm, bursting open easily and killing the infants. Falconers would climb up cliff sides to reach the nests of wild falcons and take the eggs when they were small, replacing them with plaster fakes. The eggs were carefully incubated and fledglings returned to their parents’ nests a few weeks after hatching. DDT and similar pesticides have now been banned in the United States. Falcons are now considered “least concern” on the endangered species list. [The Nature Conservatory].

Corvidae such as crows or ravens are not considered to be birds of prey. Although they will hunt and scavenge, much like vultures and bald eagles, corvids are entirely opportunists and will eat plant matter when it is more readily available than flesh. As such, they are considered omnivores where birds of prey are carnivores and occasionally insectivores. They are also the most intelligent birds, magpies being the only non-mammal to recognise itself in the mirror. They are able to use tools, solve multi-step problems, and work as a group. Crows are able to communicate advanced topics, and seem to have exceptional long term memory.  Corvids are perching birds, and so significantly closer to falcons than raptors [Ericson, et. al. 2005].

Although they are all hunters in the air, each species takes a different approach to how one should catch prey. Hawks and eagles are perfect for soaring, scouring the ground below for prey before swooping down and pulling the animal into the air with them. The have long, broad wings to catch updrafts and spend the least possible energy to remain in the air for long periods of time. Owls have similar wings, but more broad than long. They do not have to stay up in the air for as long, merely avoiding flapping to not reveal their presence to the prey as they closely stalk it. As always, falcons seem to be the exception to these trends. Instead of soaring, falcons gain height before diving on their prey, generally moving large distances vertically while hunting, rather than laterally. All birds of prey will hunt relatively much larger prey than most predators, sometimes taking on animals even larger than themselves. Falcons’ most common prey are pigeons, the largest of which are the same weight as some of the falcons who hunt them.

As birds of prey spread across the globe, they diversified to fill different ecological niches. Due to many having migratory tendencies, the gene pools on each continent are fairly large, but there is a major difference between Old World and New World birds of prey. Old World vultures, from Eurasia and Africa, are more closely related to raptors than they are to the New World vultures of the Americas. Vultures are the main surprise in the area of differences between birds of prey in the old and new worlds, as raptors and falcons don’t seem to differ much between the two supercontinents[ Seibold and Helbig, 1995].

Almost all birds of prey are on the top of their respective food chains, only being at risk when confined to the nest as eggs and fledglings, when they can fall prey to snakes and climbing mammals. The parents, however, are often in the nest when these creatures attempt their attacks and will fight them off. The only animals that will hunt a fully-grown bird of prey are other birds of prey. There have been many recorded cases of eagles trespassing on a falcons territory and being fought off by the smaller bird, and sometimes even killed [Outside My Window, 2012].

Falcons will defend their nests and young with their lives, taking on animals they have little chance against in the hopes that they can scare these predators off. Although birds of prey, and falcons specifically, are extremely protective of their young, once they have matured fully the young are treated like any other trespassing bird and chased away. The formidable size of most birds of prey will discourage any attackers, and when it does not, these birds are perfectly adapted for both fight and flight.

Falconers have been using birds of prey to assist them in their hunting for thousands of years. The earliest case known case of falconry was in 2000 BCE in China [PBS, 2000]. Working alongside birds of prey has persisted since then, spreading to every continent except Antarctica. However, the first known case of falconers crossbreeding their birds did not occur until 1970, when to falcons of different species were housed in the same nest and mated [Frost]. Since then, cross breeding has been done intentionally to improve upon falcons and raptors. Falconers are able to combine positive traits from different species and cut out certain flaws. Crossbreeding is also the most foolproof way for falconers to avoid inbreeding.

Falconers are legally forbidden from releasing these crossbreeds into the wild, for fear of them breeding with local populations and outcompeting pure-breed birds of prey. So while these crossbreeds are being actively prevented from influencing the wild birds’ genotype, captive falcons are more likely to be crossbred than not. The crossbreeds are consistently able to outperform purebreds of both parent species, gaining the positive traits that assist in hunting, while the other parent balances out the flaws. One of the more common crosses is between the gyr, the largest falcon, and the peregrine, the fastest. While the offspring do not reach the size of a gyr, they are much faster, and while they’re slower than peregrines, they are much larger. This balance between the advantages of each parent species makes them even more successful in their hunts [The Falconry Center].

Recently, English falconers have been able to cross the Harris hawk with the golden eagle. This is groundbreaking, as it is not just a cross between two different species, but also through different Genera and subfamilies. It is not yet clear if these offspring are fertile, but in most birds of prey male crossbreeds are fertile, while females are much less likely to be. The fact that eagles and hawks can produce viable offspring together calls into question how closely the two are related. Once gene sequencing becomes more cheaply available it will be much easier to tell [Terrierman’s Daily Dose, 2010].

Birds of prey is an extremely diverse group of animals, although it seems to be a somewhat arbitrary term. While the majority of birds classified as birds of prey are closely related, the inclusion of falcons removes credibility from the group. Furthermore, corvidae being excluded seems to make even less sense, as they are just as similar to raptors as falcons are. The term and requirements to be classified as a “bird of prey” seem to be based solely on outdated phenotypic observations. While it is a useful phrase in falconry, it appears to have little place in the scientific community.

The crossbreeding of two birds from different genera, in the form of the Harris hawk and golden eagle cross, is an amazing scientific breakthrough. It raises many questions about how close their genetics are, and about how far two creatures can be genetically before breeding viable offspring becomes impossible. The mechanical compatibility between raptors will no doubt be very important to further experimentation on this subject.

In conclusion, although humans have been in close contact with birds of prey for thousands of years, we still do not have a concrete grasp on how they are related to each other, as we gain more information each day. The phenotypic variation in species that are closely genetically tied and the similar appearances of those quite far from one another makes classifying relationships between birds of prey a great challenge.