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I decided to salvage one of Disgustedorite's scrapped ideas. Unfortunately, it was somewhat difficult to make it interesting, and it did seem Earthclone-like, as a blend of a swift or swallow and a cowbird.



Hejahaida ((Pengsongalong sepisfaucium) (??? hedge-throat)
Creator: Coolsteph (Art by: Disgustedorite)
Size: 25 cm tall
Habitat: Koseman Temperate Woodland, Koseman Temperate rainforest, Vivus Lowboreal, Central Koseman Lowboreal, Vivus Prairie (uncommon; hunting only)
Diet: Carnivore (Gushitos, Sapworms, Leaping Soriparasite, Bludbug, Minikruggs, Mikuks, Feluks, Cloudswarmers, Soricinus)
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Downy Feathers)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Hard-Shelled Eggs in Woven Nests)


==Nesting and Aggregations==

Hejahaidas nest in woodlands, clearings, or other semi-open habitats. They nest in blackflora trees of smaller species or not fully-grown individuals, and camouflage the nest using leaves and its black down feathers. Lacking a gripping hind toe, it actually can’t grip tree branches as well as a songbird, and so prefers fairly thick branches. While Hejahaidas spend most of their time in woodlands, they may make forays into the surrounding plains to hunt.

Hejahaidas live in the densest flocks during the breeding season of Sapworms and Dartirs in summer, as well as the breeding seasons of Gushitos. Populations in the Lowboreal move north in autumn, seeking more food, although they do not migrate significant distances.

==Diet & Digestive Physiology==

While not as generalistic as its ancestor, it is nonetheless adaptable to a wide range of prey and nesting habitats, so long as the prey can be caught on the wing or gleaned from conspicuous elevated locations like branches. Due to its long-legged, heavy body, it is not so maneuverable as, say, a swift, limiting sharp turns. Consequently, it favors less-maneuverable or less-aware prey species. In accordance with its niche of catching prey on the wing, its jaws can open wide: even the tip of its upper jaw is surprisingly flexible.

Typically, it swallows prey whole, where it is immobilized in sticky saliva, pushed down into an esophagus outpocket, and further trapped behind “hedges” of backward-facing conical papillae at the base of the Hejahaida’s tongue. However, it may chomp down once on fairly fragile large prey. At times, it flies just above its prey to snatch it up in one downward gulp.

Much as for Earth’s swifts, its thick saliva glues together its many small prey into a ball of corpses in its “crop”, an out pocket of its esophagus just above its stomach. It regurgitates this ball to feed its young. As it tends to swallow prey whole, a few species, such as Gushitos, have sufficient adaptations against suffocation or crushing to still be alive when it returns to the nest, twitching futilely in a mass of prey.

It rarely eats fully-grown Dartirs, as even the smaller species are absurdly long relative to its body size and a hassle to bite apart. Juvenile Hejahaidas may try to hunt fully-grown Dartirs anyway, only to rip Dartirs’ back halves off with a midair chomp and seem confused or disappointed when their prey just keeps flying away. (The prey is doomed, of course, but it’s not entirely in their stomachs.)

==Other Feeding Behavior==

Hejahaidas forage in small flocks, seeking out large aggregations of their preferred prey. This often means following large herbivorous fauna as they inadvertently flush prey out of hiding, attract detritivores with their dung, pellets, or simply lure in bloodsucking pests.

It occasionally scrabbles onto large herbivorous fauna and launches itself when it spots prey. For some large fauna, its claws hurt.

==Ecology==

It has the same predators as its ancestor where their habitats overlap with that of its ancestor’s predators, such as the Woodsalcon.

Near bodies of water (especially permanent ones), they compete somewhat with Sruglettes, which have a similar diet. They associate more strongly with large herbivores near bodies of water, as a form of niche partitioning.

That's a fair bit different from what I'd had in mind for it, but I like it! Note I intentionally gave it more toes; this was because originally it was eating larger prey and needed more stability when holding it down, but I suppose being polydactyl could also help it hold onto a branch.

Meanwhile, I got into drawing *really* far ahead because of between-gen boredom, so here's a few guys that probably won't see submission for quite a while...

Saucejays are huge jerks. They can mimic sounds and use that to get food.



The ruby pica takes it a step further and has some of the most complex vocalizations of any sauceback. It's a little bandit that forms organized flocks that find food by attacking things that already found it.



and then I got an idea for a sexually dimorphic pica and stopped because any further and I exit week 27 lol

QUOTE

That's a fair bit different from what I'd had in mind for it, but I like it! Note I intentionally gave it more toes; this was because originally it was eating larger prey and needed more stability when holding it down, but I suppose being polydactyl could also help it hold onto a branch.

I did consider the possibility it would be like a bird of prey with those long, sharp claws, but its face shape and small teeth didn't look well-suited for ripping apart rodent-esque organisms. (Though, after the fact, wooden bones are probably weaker than calcium bones at that size.) In designing how it worked, I focused on what sort of lifestyle it could have with its particular mouth shape. It's not a full-on swift or swallow, or even treeswift (which have longer legs and nest in trees, making them more similar). In fact, as swifts or swallows go, it's incompetent. Still, I didn't think its niche would be covered at all within its particular habitat. Its closest competition, Songsauce Piper and Quail Raptor, are ground foragers. I did incorporate the claws to help it scramble up and launch itself off large fauna. While this idea is a little boring, I figure it's interesting for being one of the few submissions to even mention tongue papillae, much less in the back of the throat, and for making more uses for sticky saliva.

What was your initial idea for it?

Honestly it was supposed to be a corvid analogue built for looks. I don't know why the face was like that. Maybe I was thinking of short strong snout for cracking bones.

I've actually already been working on a swift-like biat, but their ranges shouldn't overlap.

I went ahead and just removed week 26 from the title since obviously we're just...gonna keep using the same thread.

While waiting for next gen, I've drawn even more species waiting to be written up and submitted...




People kept mistaking the generation number for an ID number and more than one person built up an idea in their head that everything on Sagan 4 is nameless, so I've started putting the name in the image too now. Also, breaking my rule of never using top-down views because there's not much else to see on batbee, lol (the main problem with top-down is body parts being obscured, which doesn't apply here)

The batbee's wing membranes are translucent!

...however could someone get the idea that Generation numbers are ID numbers and Sagan 4 organisms are nameless? If these people are spectators, they must not have gone on the wiki.

The batbee having some "fingers" not enclosed by wings in an interesting innovation.

they were people just passively observing me making species, maybe they thought it was like pokemon?

I had the idea that batbee descendants could eventually lose the wing membrane completely and become like spiders! Or keep it and be flying spiders. Or flyders.

Another art completed early, I was actually inspired to draw this one while introducing one of the newcomers to flunejaws!



Sheather described it as "one of the most generic aliens ive ever seen ngl" which is not wrong I suppose; I think that the terran thing with extra eyes eating the actual aliens is funny though. If this were a movie, the crazy aliens would be eating the earthlike stuff.

Sheather was right. It is very generic. It even has doglike claws instead of big mole-like claws, as a lot of Sagan 4 organisms have. It doesn't even a purple tongue or something else unusual that wouldn't be too hard to explain for a tetrapod.

I mean...tetrapods don't normally have 6 eyes.

A lot of carpozoans are very generic to people I imagine,

Especially when wittled down to a flunejaw

Another

That is one fuzzy, cuddly beast. It's reasonably Earthlike and familiar, but looks more creative than the Incredibly Generic Flunejaw.

my WIP

Name: Leviathan
(Leviathan)
Diet: Galeone Lyngbakr, Reapermaw Hafgufa, Neptune Escape Rocket, Other Big Stuff
Size: 5 Meters - Unknown
Biome: Abyssal Zone, Twilight Zone,
Twilight Floor, Midnight Zone, Midnight floor, Surface (if the Leviathan is allowed to have that biome)
Ancestor: Twilight Echofin
Reproduction: Asexual 1 Gender
Sound: (here I will add the audio)

Features
The skin is very thick and strong and elastic they have no flesh inside of the body they are just skin bone and organs the Body is Hollow and Filled with Water with that they can survive the pressure down there they always sucks water in their body filter the Oxygen and then let the water out they does that to keep the body inflated.
They have developed a Gene where allow them to grown with no limit.
(here will come something about the echo)

Hunting and Social Interaction
(Place Holder for the hunting method and other stuff)

Reproduction
Leviathans have developed a organ in that organ they produce eggs and sperm.
If 2 Leviathans cross their way the inject each other Sperms then booth of them release a hormone where makes that the eggs will hatch then they will swim outside of the Leviathan and begin their Journey into the abyssal floor where they baby leviathans hunt.
The baby Leviathans have a grow boost in the first 4 months they will reach in that time 20-30 meters and then left the abyssal floor to the twilight zone
The Size of a newborn leviathan is 5 meters long 2 meters wide
If a leviathan dies they will before they dies release they own sperms in their eggs and release a special hormone where makes that the eggs hatch and then they will eat the body of the Leviathan