I thought a bit and tried to come up with a general 8 core birds, that would include all major classes, continents, biomes and sizes.
- Balistar/ Bali myna (Songbird, Tropical, Asia, Small) As stated above, its the poster child and mascot of the endeavours to protect the threatend songbirds of south east asia, highly threatend and very common in zoos due to breeding efforts. If we want to belive the "leak" that was mentioned, these guys apperantly even have an ingame model allready. Im careful with beliving into such stuff, but i do belive, that they are by far the best choice for a song bird. There very special conservation history, striking but still subtle look and beautiful voices will enable a very special experience in the game, while also spreading awareness for one of the most important but overlooked fights of conservation by the general public. Sounds like a win win to me.
- Bald Eagle (Eagle, Aquatic/ at the Water, North America, large) Quite the nobrainer i would guess, its simply the most famous Eagle, North American bird and even the Icon of the USA themself. They are also being widespread in zoos, making them a perfect fit. Also their special status in north american zoos would be a great reason to give us an option to cut the feathers of birds, making them not relying on aviaries but letting us keep them as normal habitat animals, something they already have atleast hinted at with the greater flamingo in the game. It would be a great feature and almost necessary to faithfully represent these majestic birds in their homeland zoos on american turf.
- Bearded Vulture (Vulture, Alpine, Europe, Africa and Asia, large) These widespread, beautiful, almost dragonlike looking bird that lives over most of central europe and asia, as well as north africa and even a few in south africa. Its an icon of european conservation and one of the largest flying birds in the world, with a wingspan of 2,9 meters. Its also known as the only vertebrate thats diet consists of 70%+ bone, that they crack open with their strong beaks and the power of rocks and gravity.
I chose them over a condor as an alpine vulture, as of all the birds they feel the most likely to be postponed to be a pack seller down the line like the jaguar, polarbear or kangaroo, as well as the far superior range that the bearded vulture offers.
- Great Hornbill (Hornbill, Tropical, Asia, large) This one actually was the hardest choice, as atleast in the EAZA they arnt actually that common, with only a bit over 20 holdings, while all of the other birds cracked atleast 50, far more most of the time. I knew i wanted a hornbill, with the most tempting other candidates being the southern ground hornbill, that got disqualified with its "ground" (i know they can fly, but they could also be a habitat animal like the flamingos are right now with clipped feathers), or the Von der Decken hornbill, a smaller and way, way more common in captivity african hornbill. In the end, even though the smaller one would have been the better statistical choice, because of the small part and asia already having the most birds in this pack, i just went with my heart and choose the Great hornbill, as i just feel, that will the Decken hornbill is cool and would have its uses, the great hornbill is just more iconic and you know, greater. If i think about hornbills, these guys come to mind and especally regarding that this expansion is rather late and as allready discussed would need to be quite the wow factor to win over more casual fans, i just went with the more publicly recognisable.
The only sad part about this is, that i doubt that the Decken hornbill would have another realistic shot, while this one deffenetly would have.
- Kookaburra (King Fisher, deserts, Grassland and dry forests, Australia, medium) Its the meme bird, blessed with just being called laughing "Hans" in german. Its one of the most iconic austalian birds, which is quite the archievment, as the continent is full of great and iconic birds, that mostly wernt choosen for being parrots. His other big contender, the greater bird of paradise feels like he wouldnt be that great for an australian rep, while still being a great headliner for an oceania dlc. Also they live in dry bushland, something only other bird on this list is known for, aswell as being very common in Zoos, having 269 holdings in the EAZA alone, making them more common then the scarlet macaw.
- Macaw (scarlet) (Parrot, Tropical Savannah, South America and Central America, Large) While i personally would prefer the blue-and-yellow macaw and hope for both of them as they are just skins, i dont think anyone can argue that the most iconic bird of the world should be the headliner of this pack. Also noteably the scarlet macaw is one of the biggest living parrots, making it stand out besides being the scarlet macaw. It also has the furthest range of any macaw species. It was also one of the two species present in the costa rican ara project.
- Snowy Owl (Owl, Tundra and Bogs, North America, Europe and Asia, medium) Its the most widespread owl and the best representative for the tundra region. Also funfacts! The snowy owls are great for zoos, as they actually arnt nocturnal and instead dont have a fixed sleeprhytm, a trait they share with fossas that makes them more suitable for zoos then other owls. Another funfact is that they are belived to be one of the animals with the purest white color in the whoule animal kingdom, so thats bonus points.
Also one of the most commonly held birds in the EAZA with 491 current holdings.
- Turaco (white-cheeked) (Turaco (duh), Tropical and Savannah, also common in alpine dry forests, Africa, medium) Turacos are an unique order of birds from africa and probably the continents best shot for a none parrot, they would simply bring some color and diversety. Living in grasslands and dry forests and a wide spread zoopopulation are also two big + + in my book. I chose the white-cheeked in particular, as its one of the three most commonly held (each 100+ in EAZA alone) while still looking quite alike the "normbirds" of the Turacos with their green coloring.
With this selection of birds we have:
- 8 different Familys of Birds
- 3 Birds of prey and 1 guy that slam dunks snakes to death, leaving only south america without a avian predator, with the harpieeagle as a great dlc animal for the future to fill that hole
- 4 Asian, 2 African, 2 European, 2 American (1 north 1 south) and 1 Australian bird (if you overlap all of their ranges on a map, most of it will actually be filled out, with only west australia, south south america and the saharah as well as west and large parts of central and south africa not being coverd, while europe, northamerica and asia are pretty much fully coverd)
- 4 Tropical, 3 Grassland and dry Forest, 1 Tundra, 1 Aquatic, 1 Alpine, 1 desert bird
- 4 large, 3 medium and 1 small sized bird
- 6 birds ranging from iconic to some of the most famous and recognisable animals on earth and 2 more unknown picks, that are still very common in zoos
So yeah thats my list, of what i think would be one of the most efficient ways to put just 8 birds into the game while still obtaining maximum diversity and coverage of all niches we could wish for.
Ofcourse its not perfect, as every list of 8 birds would be a bunch of trade offs and sacrifices, but i focused on covering the 4 categories i lined out with each bird, while using only very common zoo birds, besides one exception were i called myself out on.
Also this is not my top 8 list of most wanted birds, just an idear of what i would do if i were in frontiers choose and had to choose just 8 birds, as we outlined that most see that as the absolute minimum. Ofcourse i do like all of these birds, but each of them has more of a reason to be here then just me liking them.
What are your thoughts? Would you agree with this selection of "essential" birds? And if not, what would you change and why?
Btw, this is a meta chat for speculation and not wishing, so lets try to not just argue for what we would want, but what we think is likely or the best buisness move from frontiers perspective. I hope this list can be a great base of conservation and discussion, as i find it easier to discuss a topic and how it could be done the best way, when theres allready a concrete example present and not just footnotes scatterd all over the place.
