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The Haast Eagle, scientifically known as the Hieraatus Moorei, is the largest species of eagle to have ever existed. Native to New Zealand, this eagle was the uncontested apex predator of the ecosystem, tackling and bringing down prey as large as the giant moa and possibly New Zealand's first humans. Its genus name in Greek means harpax, meaning grappling hook, and it’s very likely the influence of the folklore of giant man-eating birds in New Zealand like the Pouakai and Hokioi. Adapted to hunt prey larger and heavier than itself, haast eagles would divebomb prey on the forest floor from trees, slamming into them at high speeds while slashing away with their tiger-sized talons and beak. The force exerted by this would be similar to having a large cinder block dropped on you from a four-story building. Accustomed to life in the jungles, haast eagles are commonly found darting through the map's high canopies. These powerful predators are well adapted to snatching prey, predators, or egg thieves that encroach on their territory or threaten their nests. Abilities -Divebomb attack that temporally stuns creatures up to the size of an allo or yuty on impact. This attack does work on other flyers, and can tun creatures up to the size of a quetzal. While diving the eagle can perform a barrel roll and quickly change direction to avoid missing the target. -Perch: While sustained long periods of stamina are what argents specialize in, haast eagles specialize in maneuverability and speed. To conserve stamina the eagle is able to lock on and perch on the many various surfaces with its massive talons, primarily they can perch on the vines/zip lines connecting the rock formations across parts of the map, While perched on these vines, provided there's enough space, they can slide down or shuffle up in a similar manner to ravagers and gigantopithecus. Doing this does not drain any stamina. -Passive scare: Small animals are frightened by the eagle, and will passively flee from it. These animals include microraptors, pegos, troodons, hyaenodons, and ichthyornis. -Insulation: Similar to the direbear, the eagles course and fluffy feathers provide insulation to the rider -Wing attack, after soaring/diving for a short amount of time will gain the ability to perform a new attack. When landed, a built-up wing beat will result in a gust of wind that pushes attackers back. Works up to creatures the size of a carno/baryonyx. The resulting hit has the potential to keep several attackers back for several seconds. The wing beat will also collect nearby resources if not being used to attack anything. -Eagle eye: Birds of prey have some of the best eyesight of all animals, and I think it should be utilized. These eagles are active both day and night, and utilize their eyesight to spot enemies and prey at all times of the day. Eagles are able to spot and point out enemies in a large vicinity, these enemies include those buried underground. -Enhanced agility , able to turn on a dime at high speeds through the trees -Prime meat collector, can collect prime meat from smaller creatures with its talons -Maneuverability is one of the birds main strong suits, riders will be able the benefits of its more nimble frame compared to tames like argents and pteranodons -A screech that frightens small creatures, this works on creatures up to the size of a direwolf -Pest Control: when set on wandering it targets small creatures in a large vicinity like troodons, pegos, dilos, and ichthyornis(this factors into the whole prime meat collector thing). If the eagle doesn’t kill them in one hit it will seize them with its talons and tear them apart while airborne. This can be particularly useful on beaches where these creatures are a constant annoyance. -The pest control ability would also target non tribemates on foot trying to sneak into your base, so having some of these soaring or perched around the base would be very beneficial from getting raided -Carrying: These large birds can pick up the majority of the Ark's smaller creatures. While not able to hold creatures as large as the argent, they can carry heavier animals than the ptera. They are able to attack any creatures that they're holding. Taming Method: There are two ways of taming haast eagles. Adults can be passively tamed by being ensnared by a net gun. Once down they can be passively fed their preferred food, mutton. Once freed they’ll briefly retreat but return to the attack, in doing so they can be ensnared again and the taming process can be contained. Be careful, as the speed at which adults can move can make this difficult. The alternative is more straightforward and is done by collecting eggs from nests in large trees and cliffsides. Once eggs are collected the parents will go after you, so get out fast. Nest loot: Eggs aren't the only thing that can be found in nests. Most large eagle nests today are full of fur and bones from previous meals, so even if the eggs are the main focus one could collect some pelt or additional resources from nests/empty nests. Nest loot can range from items like hide, wood, thatch, gems, and mushrooms, to melee weapons like hatchets, picks, and climbing picks. Appearance: Appearance loosely based on the largest living forest eagles like a harpy, crowned, and philippine eagles, but with obvious differences to give it a distinct, different look. To some extent, it would make sense for it to have some slight resemblance to the little eagle(ironically it's closest living relative). Having a crown of feathers like some other large raptors that could be a color region would also add to its look. A small detail that should be mentioned was that in real life it had a fairly long beak compared to most eagles. Another detail that should be acknowledged is its broad, rounded wings. These wings would be more robust and rounded compared to those of other flyers in a similar look to the real creature, which gave it less ability to soar but allowed for its extreme aerial maneuverability. Also similar to modern eagles, its posture would be in a tall, upright stance when grounded or perched. Spawn locations: A forest eagle by default, these birds can also be found on the maps of mountainous and canyon regions. While less common, they can be found on the maps snow regions as well. Colors: Small detail that can be taken into consideration regarding appearance, Maori(New Zealand's first people) oral tradition from the late 1800s records described it as apparently having “red, black, and white plumage with black feathers tinged with yellow or green with a bunch of red feathers on the head”. Source: https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/haasts-eagle#:~:text=Maori%20oral%20tradition%20from%20the,of%20a%20small%20golden%20eagle Drops: Feathers(pelt), raw meat, raw prime meat, hide, and talons that can be used for crafting. These large hooked talons can be used as primitive-style climbing picks. Crafting: Eagle talons can be used to craft certain melee weapons and can be used as a substitute for keratin in other crafting. Items that eagle talons can be used to craft include climbing picks, sickles, picks, etc. These weapons do more damage and have more piercing ability compared to their normal metal counterparts. Ideas from the comments: -When grabbing enemy players, if receiving too much damage, the eagle will keep flying upward before dropping them from a great height. This idea actually makes a lot of sense as large eagle species have been documented doing this to animals. -Is able to swoop like the snow owl -When diving and slashing, the eagle can rip a parachute. -Spawn in the high mountains and redwoods. -Specialization: Can be trained to specialize in attacking certain creatures like insects, theropods, mammals, etc. Image Credit(please read): /THE IMAGE IN THE PROPOSED SIZE COMPARISON AND DOSSIER IS NOT MY ART/. The art in the proposed size is from Cenozoic Life.blogspot. The illustration of the eagle is from Jurassic World Alive, who’s done a great job of displaying the animal. The outline for the eagle with wings expanded can be credited to Emily Stepp over on Twitter as well. Be sure to follow her if you're a fan of great paleo art. Keep in mind I do not intend for the creature in-game to look exactly like either depiction, but both are good reference points. Once again, I take no credit for any of the art used in these, only the abilities, ideas, and suggestions. Thank you for reading. Other Notes: Rideable, can go with or without a saddle, although like with almost any creature a saddle is preferred. Smaller than the argent but bulkier/taller than the pelagornis. Regarding the wing attack, think of the build-up being something similar to the wooly rhino's charge. Its crown of feathers could flare up like a dilo's frill during its boosting shriek. As always feel free to give suggestions, drop your art, or even a dossier in the comments. I’ll be sure to take what I can into consideration and be open to adding new things so long as they're not unrealistic or too ridiculously OP. I’d love for this amazing creature to be something that we can all find fun and useful. Also, feel free to give me any ideas on how I can make this even more fitting for Ragnarok, I was originally going to submit for a different map vote but decided to give it a go for this one as well.