[Lo-W] Changeling Birds

These birds were very unimaginatively named after a very similar pony-like species in Equestria - Changelings :D Someone was really creative when naming them.

Appearance:

Changeling Birds are small birds with a wing span of about the length of a pony leg. That said, their wings are rather huge compared to their body, so the body itself is only roughly 1/3rd of the entire wing span.
They have a very strong beak and a rather big head.
Their body looks a little bit chubby, but that's the ideal for them.
The wings they have consist of two parts: a feathered part which are roughly the coverts of a normal bird wings, and a bug wing part - "bug feathers" - which replace the primary and secondary feathers.
They have long leather-y tail "feathers" which closely resemble a changeling's tail. It spreads apart when flying, but is otherwise folded together.
Then they fly at or above a certain speed, their eyes will leave a glowing trail in their eye color. (Think of it like the sonic rainboom, just less fancy)

Colors:

The beak is normally colored in an orange-ish tone, but can range between any dull yellow and red color.
The eyes are always black (or a very dark grey) with a brightly colored gradient pupil.
The 'bug feathers' can be colored any color, although bright neon colors are the most common to find (95% neon colors, 3.5% dull colors, 1.5% pastel colors) and are always the same color as the pupil.
Their bodies are always a dark grey, with the tail feathers and parts of the feathered wings being in an even darker shade. The tail feathers are always entirely in the darker shade whereas the feathered wing parts can only be partly darker.

Habitat:

These birds can actually found all around Equestria, but they are most commonly found around the Crystal Empire as crystal ponies are the easiest to get love from. However, they try to stay away from Southern Equestria as flying through the scorching sun there can burn their wings. They are also not found in very cold and very windy areas.
During the Everfree Village times, there was a high density of them in the Everfree Forest, but they have completely vanished from there after the Great Cataclysm and never returned.

Diet:

Originally, these birds fed from love just as changelings did, but over the centuries, they evolved to be truly omnivores. They can eat about everything, including love; which is also still their favorite. Their least favorite is meat or fish, but eat it in dire times when no love is around. Love also fills their stomachs twice as fast as any other food would.

Hunting:

Most of these birds became pets for other species. The advantages of being a pet clearly win over the disadvantages. (And there is really only one disadvantage - freedom - but they never really yearned for freedom in the first place, so who cares?)
Also, being a pet is the easiest way to hunt their favorite food. As love is shared with them, they don't have to be as cruel as changelings are, but if they are starving, they will use their strong beaks to literally pick your love out of you.
As for berries and stuff, they are just picked from bushes.
And lastly, meat & fish: first off, only wild Changeling Birds even eat that in the first place. As for fish, they can spot them in the water and then rush down to grab it in the water with their claws. When it comes to meat, they only hunt very small creatures, with bunnies being the largest prey they hunt.

Abilities:

As already mentioned above, one of their 'abilities' is to consume love, but they can also color-shift which they use to resemble other, nicer birds. They cannot change appearance, so they try to impersonate birds of equal size, but they can change their bug feathers to look more like bird feathers. They can only look like bird feathers though, they are still leather-y to the touch.

History:

These birds have been around ever since Grifix have fled from the Changelings. Originally, they just stayed in the forest the Changelings originally lived in, but expanded over all of Equestria over time.
Originally, they could solely consume love and were able to shapeshift like the Changelings could, but evolved to be more versatile. Their shapeshifting ability was never really needed (and thus, only retained in the bug feathers really to pass as a normal bird) and being only able to consume love brought them rather close to extinction.
Due to their close resemblance to Changelings, there are many wild theories as to whether and how these two are related. The wildest theory is that a Changeling fell in love with a different kind of bird and shapeshifted into that bird species. Then, these two - the bird and the changeling while shapeshifted to the same species - had children and the theory assumes that the changeling DNA mutated the bird DNA to become the Changeling Birds we know today.

What Grifix Use Them For:

During the Everfree Village, Changeling Birds were still adjusting to an omnivore life style, so they often sought out Grifix for love. They were mostly disliked/feared by the Grifix, but some very brave individuals tried to keep them as pets and it went surprisingly better than most would've imagined.
In the Empire, their wings are usually what's most valuable to them as they are used for clothing to make them look prettier. They are still not that important though as they do not have any helpful properties. Still, whenever Grifix pass the Crystal Empire, they try to gather at least some of the material. Sometimes, they also manage to get a beak which is used for weapons as they are sharp and sturdy.