Augurey

Cryptologic Name: Kairouli liveros
Planar Origin: Veneficus
Habitat: Temperate marshlands
Diet: Carnivorous, feeding primarily on insects and faeries

Appearance & Morphology
The augurey, sometimes referred to as the “Irish phoenix,” is a moderately large bird resembling a vulture. Its long neck and head are mostly bare save for a ruff of plumage around the base of the skull and a bright crest stemming from the same area atop its head. Mostly grey-brown in color, these birds have shocks of bright green feathers in their crest, tail, and wings.

Behavior & Magical Abilities
Augureys are known to sing a melancholic song, and for a long period of time many believed this call to be prophetic of one’s death. In the mid 1700’s Rumors spread of people suffering heart attacks walking the marshlands in which these birds can be found, and these deaths became attributed to the birds’ dreary ballads. It wasn’t until many decades later, when cryptozoology became more widely studied in the magical community, that we discovered the true nature of these birds’ magical abilities. It is true that they have minor prophetic powers, however they do not predict death, but rather the coming onset of precipitation. As such, these birds became wildly popular among mage families as weather predictors, however during the rainier months their unpleasant dirges can be rather taxing to hear with such frequency.

These birds are rather reclusive, building teardrop-shaped nests out of thorns and bramble and remaining hidden within them for the bulk of the day, only emerging in the twilight hours to hunt for meals.

Aside from their predictive abilities, they also have another unusual property in their plumage. Augurey feathers contain a chemical compound that resists ink, and thus are useless as writing quills.

Field Notes

• It’s nickname, “Irish phoenix,” is not particularly meaningful from a cryptozoological standpoint. These creatures are not native to Ireland (like most magical creatures, they are extraplanar beings, though to be fair there is a sizable population there) and primarily are associated with Ireland because of their green coloration. Similarly, they are not closely related to phoenixes, but are simply magical birds of a comparable size. Informal names are often thus, much as how “jellyfish” are not actually fish. This is probably unimportant to most of you but I’m a scientist and this is my field guide so you signed up to hear my inane complaints about mage society’s unscientific way of talking about things.

• Uric the Oddball [a wildly eccentric collector of magical species] is known to have slept in a room containing no fewer than fifty pet augureys. During one particularly wet winter, Uric became convinced by the moaning of his augureys that he had died and was now a ghost. His subsequent attempts to walk through the walls of his house resulted in what his biographer Radolphus Pittiman describes as a “concussion of ten days’ duration.’
  (Scamander, Newton. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Obscurus Books, 1927.)