Ornithology in Video Games

Hey, What's up! If you haven't read my intro, give it a quick look, You'll see that I like things like old school video games and nature (What a combo!)

I want to do a few of these articles... Have it be a little bit educational and entertaining at the same time. We'll see how well these play out.

One thing I have focused in on within my love of nature is birds. They're everywhere, they're drastically different between families and locations and they're just so neat.

So Majestic...

Anyways, Along with My second fascination : Video games, I decided to take a look at some of the birds in a few of the games. Not all the games, and definitely not the Pokemon games... That would take forever...

And, for the sake of keeping this somewhat biological, Robot birds, alien birds and bird-people don't count.

PART 1: GAMES WHERE YOU PLAY AS A BIRD

Before I go too far in this, I am not going to mention the angry birds game. I never played it ( I don't have a cell phone and I just don't like those kinds of games) and the birds are just purely fiction. So instead, I'm going to mention a few oldies that come to mind.

#1 Percy the potty Pigeon

Yes, this exists

Originally, this spot was going to be for Flicky, but I felt that it didn't stand out as much as this game. I was looking around on some gaming sites and found this, and thought "This sounds more interesting."

Now I haven't played this personally but I found a good video that does a good job reviewing it and showing some gameplay.

If you don't feel like watching the video here's the simple version: You are a pigeon gathering twigs for a nest. You have to defend yourself against cars, other birds and moths! Your defense? Pooping on them! It's a simple arcade game for the Commodore 64

Now for the fun part! Pigeons! People call them feathered rats, disease bags and well, they're not Far off. They can cause bird flu, and a bunch of other stuff.

Because I live out in the country, I don't experience much with pigeons. Granted, they're at the farm down the road but I hardly see them.

Percy's attack is in reality more damaging than you'd think. But we'll get to that later!

#2 Birdweek

I like how the predator bird is like "Wow, a 4 course meal!"

Now, I played this once at a game store that was selling Japanese Famicoms as well as the plug-n-plays you see every once in a while at flea markets and county fairs. 

I only played for a few minutes and got the gist of it.While you appear to be again some kind of song bird, this time your young are completely altricial, relying on you for food and protection. You have to move quick as your babies can starve.
You also have a bigger predatory bird, Most likely an Accipiter, Maybe a Goshawk  Judging from his bird hunting behavior stalking you from the beginning. You can drop a mushroom on him to get him to back off for a short time while he presumably trips out or is too sick to fly.

In any case, levels are made up of seasons. In the later levels, there's more enemies that can kill you in a hit. ( I think one is supposed to be a frog, but who knows...) The music is pretty typical for an NES game from 1986. 

#3 Tiki the Kiwi- New Zealand Story

Okay, Tiki the Kiwi is AWESOME. If real kiwis kicked as much butt as Tiki, they wouldn't be endangered. Tiki can use arrow, lasers and bombs to take out his enemies.

In real life, Kiwis are actually decently strong enough to keep themself from being killed off by predators for the most part. That is except for the ones brought over by man. Pigs, dogs and cats have damaged their populations heavily over the years.

While the kiwi is flightless in real life, (Except in Depressing animations) Tiki can fly after he murders an enemy and steals their jet pack or hot air balloon. 

I believe I can fly!

Part 2- Birds that help you

Sometimes, a bird is your best friend. Here's a couple of avian allies that I feel stand out.

#1 Peter the Parrot (Star Tropics)

Peter is a talking parrot from startropics. When he is found, he won't talk to you unless you give him a gift ( A yummy worm) Afterwards, he gives you the musical code to open Captain Bell's Memorial, allowing you to progress.

Parrots can learn to talk and often understand what they're saying if taught correctly. Parrots mimic other birds in their area, and will mimic people around them So chances are, Captain bell pretty much programmed Peter to repeat the phrase after being fed a worm. Cool beans!

#2 Kaepora Gaebora

Kaepora Gaebora, AKA The owl, AKA "DARN IT, I HIT YES WHEN HE ASKED IF I WANTED TO HEAR WHAT HE SAID AGAIN!" Is a wise sage of a bird within the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time Universe. He gives you helpful advice when you're traveling around but once you've beaten the game once, you don't really need to know what he says unless you completely forgot what he said...
 Kaepora, like most owls in literature and cartoons is portrayed as being wise. A lot of this portrayal comes from ancient Greek mythology where a symbol of Athena (A goddess related to concepts of wisdom and knowledge) was the owl.
Not all cultures portrayed owls as intelligent however. India associated the owl with foolishness.

Scientifically, some tests have found owls to be a little lacking the the smarts department...

Should I repeat that? Yes Or  NO. NO PLEASE NO.

#3 Cutrus(8 eyes)

I thought about this one for a while. There were a couple of choices but in the end, I thought to myself "Hey, what was that one game where you were a falconer... It was like castlevania but nowhere near as fun..."
8 eyes is a platformer game for the NES. It has a long convoluted story about the apocalypse or something but that's not important. What is important is that you are a swordfighter named Orin that has a falcon named Cutrus that helps you hit switches and certain enemies are only hurt by him. Cutrus even has his own health bar, he dies, he's gone.

There's only one other game to feature falconry (that I know of) But for what it's worth, Falconry has a long and fascinating history that dates back Thousands of years and is still practiced today and it's highly regulated.

Part 3- Birds that want to kill you

Not all birds can be heroes or helpers. Some are jaded jerks that want you dead, others... Well, it's just their nature. Can't really blame them, can you? of course you can't.
Let's take a look at the birds that want to peck your eyes out and use your corpse for a nest.

#1 Buzzard- Puss in boots

I got a hold of Puss in boots: Pero's great adventure pretty early in my life. It was among one of my favorite games. You're a cat that shoots things, drives a submarine, a plane, a car... What's not to like!!! Well, when you get to stage 3, You're in Saudi Arabia driving a car. Some of the enemies include a weird little drilling car looking thing, a wolf in a flying cart thing and the "Buzzard"

In the US, the buzzard is a sort of localized name for vultures. In Europe, a buzzard is a common name for a whole line of birds of prey, mainly members of the Buteo family.

Anyways, in the game, they have 2 attacks. They fly in a straight line at you, which If you're airborne like in the plane level, this makes sense because a bird can seriously mess up A plane.
Their second attack is to drop these things...

Yep. We're going to talk about birds pooping again.

I know the nes didn't have wonderful graphics, but COME ON! THAT'S DEFINITELY poop!

This isn't the first time I spotted this in a game. The second time came from a disney game.

Taken from Level 2 of Mickey's mousecapades

So... Yeah. Birds pooping. While getting messed on by a bird isn't excessively detrimental to your health, It can be damaging to the environment.

Certain birds, such as the cormorant have a history of having nutrient rich guano that can be used for fertilizer and other stuff. It also destroys the environment they poo on because it's extremely acidic. Some places even have control issues where Cormorants have become overpopulated.

For what it's worth, being pooped on by birds is pretty darn gross.

It's happened to me and it's not pleasant. 

#2 Owls from Castlevania III

Of course... More owls.

I was somewhat haunted by this game as a child. It almost made me afraid of the woods at night. 

Owls are encountered in the mad woods of Castlevania III Dracula's curse.

I liked this level's music and the graphics were alright. And then the owls showed up. They start out as 2 eyes appearing in the black of the forest and then they dive out and attack.

Along with their quick movement and dive pattern, they were no match for me as a kid. That and they would knock me into the nearest pool of water.

I know it might be nitpicking, but owls are known well for their silent flight. In the game they kind of have this weird "Card shuffling" sound which isn't exactly accurate, but who cares. They scared me back then and I felt it was worth mentioning.

#3- Meh. I give up

By this point, I got torn between cuccos from LOZ, and countless other birds from other games.

Wow. this was sort of a dumb article but it was fun working on it.