Dulce Nube

The Dulce Nube or Sweetbirds are a bird species that feeds with crystal sugar bloom nectar, which causes their feathers to have a texture and taste similar to cotton candy.

They were introduced accidentally in the Frozen Empire together with the crystal sugar bloom plants, and for a while they have been considered pests because they consume the sugar grifix want to use, but in fact they are essential to the plant’s survival, because they pollinate, being the only thing acting as a pollinator in the environment that lacks any insects. The plants actually evolved together with the bird, so their existence depends on the other. In the end it was proven that flowers continue to grow sugar after it is consumed, so the birds aren’t actually very damaging to the sugar quantity.

Some Sweetbirds are kept by the herbalists guild in crystal sugar bloom farming greenhouses in order to pollinate, but their population is strictly controlled and eggs are removed when there's too many of them. The eggs taste like creme brulee when cooked, but they are small so they're not mass consumed, mostly just grifix taking care of those greenhouses eat them at breakfast.

In their original habitat, the warm weather was melting the ends of their feathers so they didn't overgrow. The cold climate of the Empire doesn't allow that, so their cotton candy feathers overgrow and the birds can't fly anymore. There's a small group of merchants that are tasked to go around the empire and cath all the birds regularily in order to trim their feathers and give them to grifix for consumption.

The cotton candy like feathers grow on their tails and heads. They grow continously unlike the rest of their feathers, but if too long the birds can't fly because of the weight. All feathers are edible but others kind of stick in your throat and they grow back very hard so cutting them harms the bird. Cutting the cotton candy feathers doesn't harm the birds at all, but it is important that during the breeding season they aren't cut because those feathers act as food for the babies.

The male and female of the species have very different coloring, the male being a dark green that blends in with the crystal sugar bloom leaves while the female is a light yellow.

Babies are completely covered in cotton candy like feathers but those must not be cut because they don't grow back and the chicks can freeze and die.

Creator: CrystalIzzy77