Everlush Bird

The Everlush is a bird that has adapted perfectly to mimic their habitat, allowing them to blend into their surroundings. In the Everfree Forest, their feathers took the shape of leaves and mimic quite well the texture of a bush. It is unkown weather they live anywhere else and how they look in different enviroments.

They are mostly nocturnal so they can see quite well in the dark, but they can be found qalking around during the day as well. In most cases, however, they sleep during the day, tucking their head under their belly and pulling their body close to the ground so they are unrecognizable from a bush. Because of their habitat, they didn't need the ability to fly so their bones are not hollow like on most birds. They can only fly a few feet off the ground, which they sometimes do if they feel like a tree would be safer than the ground. 

They usually move around by hopping, and they can even make bigger jumps in order to compensate for theeir inability to fly properly.

Their chirps sound like marbles clashing together.

In order to perfect their camouflage, they pick fallen branches which they stick into their tail or berries and other colorful objects off the forest ground which they stick on their body. This has also become part of their mate selection ritual, the female picking the male with the most impressing collection of branches and berries stuck onto their body.

They are omnivorous, their diet consisting of berries, plants, or pieces of meat left behind by predators. During the spring season, they will catch small animals like mice and frogs to eat.

They have very strong beaks, being able to even break rocks with them.

They are flock creatures. They always stay around their flock, and even nesting is done in the group.

Before winter, they will use their beaks to break rocks and dig a cave for their flock. They will also store food in the cave, but if the food goes out before winter ends, they will start to eat each other.

After winter, they will come out of their cave and start decorating themselves for the mating season.

When near predators, they will sit down on the spot, head into the ground and feathers lay apart to mimic small bushes. Their smell also mimics that of a bush so they are hard to spot, but vampire jackalopes seem to be able to spot them pretty easily. They usually grab one and run away with it before the flock can react, because an angry flock of everlush birds is no match for one jackalope.

Their mating season is in spring. The flock makes a common nest where each female lays 3 to 5 eggs, and they will take turns at nesting. Once babies hatch they will require special food, which leads to a strange phenomenon in the forest. The babies require fesh bits of meat, but they can only eat meat so feeding them mice is useless because they can not eat the fur or the bones. For that, the parents go around the forest and attack animals that just got out of hibernation, ripping pieces of meat off of them without killing them and taking those to the babies. The parents are often attacked by the animals they attack and they end up being the prey instead.

Everfree Village residents usually don't interact with these birds, but sometimes cubs will find them and chase them around calling them "running bushes".

They're not a good food source as their meat is tough. The berries on them however make a great food source to survive in the wild.

Creator: Emizu_TH