Flickerbird

The flickerbird is a creature of Dadauar most remarkable for its magical ability to become briefly intangible and invisible. While it seems to have developed this ability to escape from predators, flickerbirds can also use it to pass through solid objects, and sometimes do so unintentionally in their flight. Flickerbirds can and sometimes do rematerialize within an enclosed space, including a locked building.

This occasional tendency to appear inside houses and other structures has led to flickerbirds being considered something of a pest. They are not intentionally hostile, and if provoked tend to flee rather than fight, but having a bird suddenly materialize in the middle of one's shop or residence can still be disconcerting. Worse is the mess they may leave, especially if they remain in a building for a while before flickering back out of it; many a householder has returned home to find his floor or furniture befouled by flickerbird droppings. Because of this, active efforts have been made to eliminate the creatures; while their flickering ability makes it hard to harm them, they can be killed if taken off guard, and of course they are susceptible to more indirect means such as poisoning, with which flickerbird exterminators have had great success.

While once found all over Dadauar, flickerbirds have been hunted to extinction in many places, and now are common only in eastern Jahanna and Eordi, and the western tip of Matuni, though scattered small populations still exist elsewhere. They are no longer as actively hunted as they once were, partly because of conservational concerns but also partially because of the advent of flickerproofing, rendering treated buildings no longer penetrable by the creatures—though flickerproofing is expensive enough to be out of the reach of many homeowners. Flickerproofing has also allowed flickerbirds to be kept as pets, and, while still rare, they are becoming increasingly popular in that capacity. Flickerproofed cages can prevent the creatures from escaping, and the sight of a flickerbird vanishing and reappearing in his cage can be amusing.

Other than their flickering ability, flickerbirds are fairly unremarkable in appearance, about the size of a sparrow and a dark, unsaturated blue in color. They have a somewhat monotonous call in a high, rising pitch. In the wild, the flickerbird builds nests with two separate chambers, one with a small aperture connecting it to the outside and the other completely sealed, though not airtight. The sealed chamber, accessible only through its flickering ability, is where the flickerbird sleeps and where it goes for protection, but it brings its food to the other chamber to eat it; flickerbirds cannot bring other objects with them when they flicker out.