Nychoschelidae

**Nychoschelidae** (meaning **"clawed limb"**), also known by their common name the "sickle-wings", are a family of clawed, mostly carnivorous Ornithosmilids that diverged recently and now have become very diverse and widespread. Their main feature that makes them different from other ornithosmilids is their clawed winglets. These clawed winglets have allowed them to exploit flying predatory niches and have allowed them to be quite nimble and agile on the ground and on trees. They traded their front-limb bipedalism for what now is essentially a hexapedal gait.

Another trait Nychoschelids share, is their lack of almost any head crests or back fins. The animals in general lack this ancestral features, only having a highly modified horizontal tail fluke, that serves mostly to stabilize them during flight and not as a sexual display organ.

This group has three known subfamilies. The most basal but highly successful predatory sickle-wings (Nychopterinae). The nocturnal and almost owl/anurognathus like nightwatchers (Pteronoxinae). And the widespread and successful jay or swiftlet like insectivorous sickle-swifts (Camptornisinae).This group has a wide range, many reaching from tenebris to alta insula. Their adaptations for their diet and their more effective way to move around seems to have given them an edge in comparison to their relatives. Able to walk quickly through the floor and being very effective climbers, the clawed winglets are a very versatile adaptation that has lead to a high diversity.

## **Nychopterinae**

   Nychopterinae is a widespread and diverse clade of Nychoschelids that have evolved to fill the niche of aerial predator to aerial, terrestrial, and occasionally marine prey. Members of this group have lost their crests and many other display features in favor of more efficient flight. Prey is captured via the modified rear fins that possess sharp claw-like tips. Once prey is securely held the beak is used to dispatch it at the base of the neck or head. The displayed organs are only represent a smaller portion of the variety of species in Nychopterini, specialized to fly at intense speeds.

This subfamily includes the currently known species:

* Velocipteryx micro (Tawny sicklewing)
* Velocipteryx vermiculomagnus (Red ornate sicklewing)

#### **Tawny Sicklewing**

(Velocipteryx micro), also known as the honey sicklewing, or golden sicklewing. Among the smallest and fastest in its group. Adults weigh in at 0.5 to 0.7 kg and have a wingspan of 40 cm. Habitat range is northern Media Insula, they can be seen flying over savannahs and prairies in search of food. The adult coat is a beautiful sandy coloration with faint stripes, and the eyes are a bright orange color. This aids in camouflage against the bark of bone trees they perch on. When hunting it uses its clawed rear limbs to hold tightly to the very top of a vertical or near vertical branch and search for movement in the surrounding fields.

The prey it looks for is aerial as trying to hunt on the ground is too dangerous, usually these are Xenopedans or smaller Ornithosmilids. Once a target has been spotted the Tawny Sicklewing quickly leaps off the branch and intersects and captures the unlucky creature. Males and females are not different in appearance, though females tend to be smaller. Once mature a male will establish a territory of his own and try to catch the attention of a wandering female. Males do a series of "flight dances" to demonstrate their flight capabilities and will do them competitively if a rival confronts them.

Tawny Sicklewings are monogamous and remain together during all parts of the year. Once breeding season has arrived the female will carve out a deep hole into a very tall bone tree and lay her egg-sack in it. The hatchlings are cared for until winter, which is when they leave their parents in search of a new territory and a mate.

#### **Red Ornate Sicklewing**

(Velocipterix vermiculomagnus), commonly called the ornate sicklewing or just red sicklewing, it is a larger relative to the tawny sicklewing. Weighing between 0.7kg and 1.2kg, and with a wingspan of around 85 cm, it is almost twice as large as its relative. While the tawny sicklewing is adapted to living in drier more open environment. The ornate sicklewing lives in more forested environments.

The animal is has a mostly reddish pelt, with a dark brown almost black set of plumage on its head, and bright green and red eyes surrounded by wrinkly greenish skin. Its wings are mostly dark in color. This color scheme greatly aids the animal at blending in easily through the forest backdrop. Commonly seen just crawling around on tree trunks, this animal is very well adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. Living inside holes in the trunks of bone trees, and commonly seen crawling instead of flying.

They are predators of mostly small dispeculates, their diet is greatly based on xenopedans, but also commonly includes many other species of ornithosmilid and other fliers. It hunts mostly during the day flying around at high speeds on top of the canopy of their forested environments until they find a suitable prey item and launch at them with high speed. They grab their prey with their four winglets, creating a strong grip. While they grapple their prey they begin cutting it and eating it with its proboscis. *Its common for them to eat their prey alive being completely restrained by the claws of the animal.*

The animals like their smaller relatives, are monogamous. Males tend to have their green skin around their eye much brighter, and their furry head crest being bigger. Males tend to compete in aerial dance offs, where the animals do multiple loops in the air until one is exhausted. The winner gets to mate with one of the females. They mate once each Wallacian year, with the females rapidly laying their egg-sacks in their roosts. Both parents are known to incubate the egg-sack until all the chicks have hatched, it may take up to 2 weeks for the chicks to hatch. The chicks may stay with the parents for up to 4 months. The parents teaching them how to fly and even hunt, before they abandon their home to start their own adult lives.

## **Pteronoxinae**

Pteronoxinae, a subfamily thats closely related to the nychopterines, commonly called "night-watchers" or sometimes "owl birbs". These animals are similar in body type to its close relatives. Their main difference being their different niche, that being *the niche of silent, nocturnal, flying, predator*. While these animals share many similarities with Earth's owls, they dont possess a true facial disk, instead most nightwatchers have very painted contrasting faces for interspecies communication. To be able to exploit this niche, the animals have Increased their vision extremely, likely being one of the birbs with the best vision. They also tend to prefer more open environments were moonlight can help them navigate through the night sky.

Most Pteronoxines have what is almost a furry wing, the edges of the wings are covered in many hairs. This adaptation seems to be a way to let the animals fly without much noise, with the hairs muffling the sound of their wing beats while they fly.

#### **White masked Night-watcher**

    (Pteronoxus albamaska), currently the most well known species of nightwatcher. A highly successful small nocturnal predator. Weighing between 0.5kg and 1.5kg and with a wingspan or around 45cm. Commonly seen around the southernmost regions of the planet, they are very common along more open environments on Media insula and have a large population living along the forested coast of Tennebris.

They have large front facing greenish eyes, a bright orange bill and their signature white mask. These features make them incredibly recognizable. The white mask, originally thought to be a sort of "sound disk" like owls have that allows them to be able hear effectively, that theory was quickly debunked, now thought to just be a *display structure in most nightwatchers*.. This species is commonly seen hunting in pairs, moving along the night sky like strange owl bats on the hunt. They commonly eat small dispeculates, including insect like xenopedans, however its common for them to hunt other flying animals of a similar size. There have been sightings of this animals hunting green spectacled saw-birbs, another ornthosmilid species thats in a similar size range.

Males and females show very little sexual dimorphism, the only difference admittedly is in how they smell. P. albamaska has a very good sense of smell, and males tend to extend their territory by simply rubbing their heads around trees and branches. Most of the time unmated individuals are very solitary, until they reach an age of around 2 years were they become sexually active. At that time they begin to go out of their territories in search of a mate. Once they find another individual, they would start smelling each other and start to see their beaks, eyes and masks. This behavior is to see if their potential partner are healthy individuals. The brighter and cleaner this features are, the more likely that an animal is healthy and a good mate.

The White masked night watchers are monogamous animals, They are commonly seen living together in holes in trees or inside caves with their partners. They mate once a year, with their gestation period lasting around 3 weeks before detaching their egg-sack and letting it develop more in their roosts for another week before hatching. The chicks are commonly fed by both parents for another month. Afterwards the chicks leave the parents and live as arboreal creatures for a while until they learn to fly instinctively and begin their owl like behavior.

## **Micropterinae**

### **Camptornisini**

    The tribe Camptornisini, within the Micropterine subfamily, commonly called "sickleswifts", is comprised of one extant genus, Leptodon, and the species L. pachypteryx, L. chasmo, and L. rhomale. Leptodon is a widely distributed Ornithosmilid evolved to catch flying prey on the wing, a very similar niche to the Swallows or Nighthawks of Earth. They are unique in that they are the only Nychoschelids that only use their mouthparts to catch and process food. Their long wingspan and rapid flight pattern allows for great aerial agility and speed.

Unlike many other members of Ornithosmilidae, Leptodon juveniles remain with their parent's colony. Adults will also feed these young even after they can fly. Colonies are loose and have no set hierarchy. Instead males compete in mass for the attention of females. After this the colony will break into smaller clans during breeding season to raise young. The breeding process is unique in that each egg-sack carries a single fetus. So over the course of a few weeks several egg-sacks are laid. Then into winter the clans will reform into colonies again.

#### **Yellow-chested Sickleswift**

(Leptodon chasmo mega) The most common and widespread Camptornisine, it is the posterchild for the Sickleswift clade. Adults have a wingspan of roughly 34 cm and a weight of 17 g. The population range is spread across nearly the entire Media Insula continent, including migration paths. Yellow-Chested Sickleswifts live in a variety of habitats from light forests to near-arid scrub-lands.

Adults sport a distinctive yellow chest and throat. The emerald green eyes are highlighted by a white stripe bordered in dark grey. Wing membranes are dark with pink edges. The colonies this sub-species live in are the largest of any Ornithosmilid on Wallace ii, reaching a maximum population of 200,000 adults and juveniles covering the skies in massive clouds. Occasionally these migratory groups will clump together into up to a million individuals. The impact of this can be devastating to the Xenopedan population so colonies of this size can only be maintained for a short time during winter months.
Even during breeding season when the colonies break into clans the population is still fairly large, up to 70 individuals. Nests are constructed at the tops of one or more bone trees, often close to one another. These nests are shallow in shape and made of mud and small pebbles. Males will assist females in this task as a milder form of display. When construction of these nests are completed males "strut" and expose their yellow chests to females. Then the female will fly away causing the males to chase her. The first male that reaches the female will then fertilize her. After the egg-sack is laid this process will continue again. All adults will feed the young of any parent so each hatchling is well cared for.

(Leptodon chasmo micro) A smaller and non-migratory subspecies. Adults reach a wingspan of 30 cm and a weight of 14 g when fully grown. Differences from the green eyed sub-species are subtle. The nape is often more yellow and the eyes are amber. This sub-species tends to live in far more dense forests and tropical rainforests. Other than colony size behavior and habits are otherwise indistinguishable from L. chasmo mega.

#### **Indigo Sickleswift**

(Leptodon rhomale) One of the least common species of Sickleswift on Media Insula. Adults reach a wingspan of 44 cm and a weight of 42 g. During the non-breeding season colonies move to coastal environments in sizes of roughly 500 members. During this time they roost on cliffs and small islands by the sea, and catch Xenopedans close to the surface of the water.

The adult coat is a very deep blue in color, contrasted by a cream belly. The eyes and lore are orange. Wing membranes are completely dark. Species range hugs the edges of Vadum Mare and the islands in it. Clans that form for the breeding season are very small, only ever reaching a maximum of a dozen adults. During this time the coasts are abandoned in favor of fresh water habitats inland. Nests are constructed of mud and fecal matter into deep cup shapes, usually suspended above or near a water source on bone trees. Males perform a slow rhythmic dance from a branch swaying their colorful heads side-to-side along with rapid wing beats.

#### **Rosy Sickleswift**

(Leptodon pachypteryx) The largest Sicklewing sporting an Adult wingspan of 56 cm and a weight of 79 g. Most aspects of this species are very unique among members of its tribe. The coloration is a bluish grey overcoat with a prominent pink underbelly and wing membranes. Males have a white spot behind their pink eye and an orange beak with a black tip. The only extant species living on Alta Insula across most habitats. While most species of Sickleswift are diurnal or crepuscular the Rosy Sickleswift is nocturnal, only feeding at night.

Clans will occasionally group up or lose members at any time of the year, so groups are only considered colonies when they contain 50-200 members. Nests are located in burrows stolen from other Dispeculates. The young are highly camouflaged compared to the adults so they can venture out of the nest. Males and females perform a jousting display with their beaks and horns along with other mimicking dances to court one another. Males are far more aggressive and will peck at each other during this time.

##### **Decline in population**

The population of L. pachypterix, which once covered Occidentis and the islands of Medio Mari, was one of the only species along with Spectavolans melanomagnus that managed to colonize so far east. Now their numbers have been reduced to the isolated population of Alta Insula due to two massive disease outbreaks and possibly other unknown causes.

The first of these illnesses caused the *keratin sheathes of the beak and horns to never stop growing until the creature starved to death*. The second *developed tumorous growths all over the body often limiting possible movement*. These two lead to a mass extinction that nearly wiped out the Rosy Sickleswift. The remaining breeding population suffered a huge bottleneck because of this which has led to degenerate sex cells and congenital illness. The total number of L. pachypteryx is currently once again declining at a quickening pace.

    This recent decline in population has left a void in the niches that sickleswifts could exploit. The niches that once were filled by the large rosy sickleswift now are open for other animals to exploit. This probably explains why the yellow chested sickleswift has become such a widespread animal. Where once there was multiple rosy sickleswifts eating xenopedans and insect like dispeculates, the yellow chested sickleswift has taken its place. This environmental turn over sadly seems to be a permanent thing now that the population of the rosy sickleswifts has been so compromised that they probably won't be able to do a succesful recovery.

## **Predatory adaptations aiding in their survival**

The whole family of nychoschelidae have change mayor key features of their bodies to aid them in a much more predatory niche. Such as their aerodynamic bodies lacking many fins and head crests, their strong serrated proboscis and their clawed winglets. While this adaptations might be seen as heavily specialized organs that may limit their survival to only very specific niches, *this has not been entirely the case.*

Their signature clawed winglets have become a very versatile tool for them, allowing them to attack prey, climb, and even walk in a hexapedal manner with ease. While most Ornithosmilids may have a difficult time living either on land or on trees, Nychoschelids with their versatile claws can live on either with ease.

While Nychoschelidae is a recent family, and their members haven't had much time to diversify, all of its members have very different body shapes, prey, environments and ranges. From the owl like Pteronoxines, to the swallow like Camptornisines, to the hawk like Nychopterines. They all have very different bodies to adapt to their particular niches. Its very plausible there are multiple other nychoschelid birbs will be discovered in the future, since this animals seem to have *alot of potential for future diversity*.