Paleognaths: an essay for Spec

I'm gonna post all essays for Spec here. Hopefully I won't have (very) negative answers.

Note: includes ideas of my own.
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When the first explorers went to Spec they saw a large number of birds very similar to HE's. In fact, some were so familiar that they were directly classified without any particular studies. The several dove like birds, for instance, were all classified as Collumbiformes, while any passerine like bird was directed to the Passeriformes order. However, later genetic and morphological studies prooved that Spec's biologists were wrong, and most if not all Spec's "familiar" birds aren't familiar at all (except for ancient birds like penguins and fowl, which were already present in the late Cretaceous). For instance, the "doves" were actually aberrant euornithes outside of the neornithe clade, while "passerines" were typical enantiornithes. As of yet, the familiar birds that are within neornithes haven't revealed their mysteries; no conclusive data has come from p-Apodiformes, p-Coraciiformes and p-Piciformes yet (though Spec's Piciformes do seem to have diverged from Coraciiformes, as in our world's Piciformes, and both clades seem to be related to Spadaviformes, loosely similar to the clade that includes hornbills and hoopoes in HE; given the fact that there's no known caprimulgiformes from Spec, the classification of its Apodiformes is more controversial, as in HE they are derived from nightjars and kin), but we do know that Spec's shorebirds, rails and cranes aren't neither Charadriiformes nor Gruiiformes. They are Paleognaths, relatives of HE's ratites.

Neornithe history in the late Cretaceous is not very well known; apart from the waterfowl Vegavis, all neornithe fossils from then are highly fragmentary (like those of nearly all birds); it is often assumed though that, aside from the already distinct Galloanserae (waterfowl and fowl), the forerunners of the modern bird groups were nearly all shorebird like, as the forerunners of placental and marsupial mammals were nearly all rodent or shrew like, and only in the Paleocene did they became diverse. Eventually, in both timelines a single bird order took over the all shorebird niches; in HE, it was the Charadriiformes (although Ciconiiformes did produced the probing ibises and spoonbills), but in Spec it were the paleognathian Lithiorniformes. While ratites never evolved with non-avian maniraptors around (if we ignore the large island paleognaths; see below), the descendents of early probing paleognath †Lithiornis (present in both timelines) became very diverse and now occur in all landmasses; they also expanded into other niches besides those of shorebirds, including rails, cranes, bustards, ibises, kiwis and some large island forms.

Lithiornidae

While †Lithiornis itself is dead, its descendents occur all over the world. They took the niches of sandpipers, ibises and other probing birds everywhere (aside from those of small probing birds, like plovers; see below). Because of their wroldwide success at more 600 species, and because most of their diversity is annoyingly similar to that of their HE analogues, we are only going to show a few species.

Rectal probe (Scatornis benseni)

Spec's most bizarre (and appearently most disgusting) lithiornid occurs in South America, specifically in the Amazon Basin, exactly were the pseudosauropod Aquatitan (Aquatitan boothi) lives; the small, head-feather-less rectal probe has an interesting symbiotic relationship with the ornithician: it feeds on the parasites that infect its cloaca, and in turn infects them.

Tasmanian mudpiper (Enantioprosobonia byroni)

A typical member of the lithiornid family, this bird occurs in southern Australasia, being very common in Tasmania and New Zealand; sometimes, it occurs as a vagrant as north as New Caledonia. During the summer it occurs in wetlands, preffering to winter in the coastline. These birds have an unique breeding behaviour, practised by all mudpipers; males often form couples, mating with females in order for them to lay eggs in their nest. This behaviour is seen in HE's black swans, but mudpipers are unique because they solely form male/male couples, unlike black swans, which can also use the traditional monogamous couples, male/female. This strategy beneficts both the chicks and the females, as the first have better chances of surviving with two males prottecting them, while the later can spread their genes much better without being stuck to a single partner.

Iblis (Daemonibis arabica)

Named after the devil of Islam, this ibis like bird occurs in coastoal ecosystems from the Red Sea to India. Coloured like HE's flamingoes, it obtains the pink pigment from the invertebrates that they eat. True to their name, they are truly nasty; in the mating season, males engage in terrtitorial battles that nearly always lead to mutilations and sometimes death. They have also been reported attacking other animals; some lemmecks that venture to the coast end up without an eye or worst. Females are also very protective of their young. Despiste being precocial birds, like all paleognaths, baby iblises have a strong rivalty with their siblings like nidiculous birds, and if not eaten by predators they die killed by their stronger brothers and/or sisters.

P-Kiwi (Pseudoapteryx spp.)

While Spec's New Zealand is different from HE's, it also has annoying similarities. P-kiwis are very similar to HE's: both are nocturnal birds that probe the ground with their long bills in search of worms and other invertebrates. Unlike HE's kiwis, however, these ones have bigger clucthes; after all, they live in a place were predatory birds like fells, the gobbler and toothed enantiornithes are not uncommon.

Pseudogruidae

In addition to the wader-like lithiornids there are also the rail, bustard, buttonquail, crane and tinamou like pseudogruids. They seem to be an offshot of the linage that gave rise to ratites in HE. Again, we will only present a few species, though there are at least 900 modern forms

Galapagou (Galapagotinamus spp.)

Similar to HE's tinamous from South America, the galapagous are however restricted to the Galapagos, though fossil species do occur in South America. It is believed that competion from galliformes caused their extinction in the mainland.

Macaronesian arsequail (Specturnix macaronesia)

A small landbird, this creature belongs to a group that mimics HE's buttonquails. This particular specie occurs in the eastern macaronesian islands, the Madeira and Canary archipelagos. Not very different from mainland kinds, this is a little generalist that feeds mostly on invertebrates, thus avoiding competion with the more granivorous galliformes. This particular specie is a true pest to the native flightless gondwanaviforme known as Frango (Scythornis insularis); this birds diet is composed up to 20% of the enantironithe's eggs, and and in dry seasons it even makes hounds on its chicks in order to drink the blood. But adult frangos are far from careless, and its not unusual for an arsequail to die at one's claws.

Polokai (Tetraorallus aeteroa)

Spec's takahe, this bird resembles a turkey sized moorhen. Heavy and fligthless, one could think such a beast would not exist with menacing fells nearby, but it isn't completly harmless. These birds are very agressive, and like HE's cassowaries they have powerfull claws in their feet; a single fells most likely dies while attacking one rather than killing one; though, in desesperate times, a flock of fells might gather to attack one, and in that case the result is a feast for the toothed birds.

Gobbler (Diablornis giganteus)

The polokai's closest relative, the gobbler is Spec's closest analogue to a ratite, though in terms of behaviour its more like a vulgure than a moa, eating anything that fits on its broad bill. As tall as a man, it surprisingly represents little threat to anything larger than a p-kiwi. It is specially well known for raiding gigaduck nests, so the giant waterfowl protect viciously their chicks and eggs. The gobbler is also a notable scavenger, often driving fells and predatory enantiornithes off their kills.

Fenghuan (Pseudogrus paradisea)

Out of all of Spec's false-cranes, none is more magnificient than the fenghuan. Taller than a man, this white, grey and black bird is only dwarved by the azhdarchid pterosaurs and the pseudodontorns in being the largest flying animal. It occurs in the wetlands of all of eastern Asia, leaving the Europe and western Asia to its smaller cousins. Too aquatic and too herbivorous to compete with the azhdarchids, this creature is still regularly observed in their company; perhaps the birds seek protection in the middle of a pterosaur's flock, or perhaps the false-crane feeds on the insects that the flying reptiles ignore. Fenghuans form monogamous pairs that can be life-long, thought they can "divorce" in case the couple can't produce chicks for a considerable period of time. Many older birds have at least one of their eyes white; this result of the infection of a fungus related to those that live in a baskerville's body. This phenomenon is called "white blindness", even though the birds don't seem to become blind.