Monster - Quillbacked Blood Swallow

The blood swallow is a mutation of a normal bird into an aberration. Traits that still linger with this creature are instincts, normal birdlike behavior of an insectivore. They still perch in trees, chatter, and flutter about like normal groups of birds. However, their chirps are deeper and more raspy in tone, almost guttural. Eyes never blink; they have four total and appear sunken in, regularly appearing pupil-less and bloodred. They have a 35% chance (in flocks of 45-95) to suddenly swarm, without warning, and attack an unsuspecting passer by, so long as the passer-by is made of flesh and blood. This chance increases to 50% if they are in a flock of 95 to 145. Each bird is roughly the size of an average human hand, and attack by stabbing with their beak, or latching onto flesh with their hook and sharp teeth to rip away flesh so that it can be devoured whole. They will frenzy until dispersed (take a certain amount of HP damage) or if they devour enough that their stomachs begin to explode.

Considering what spawned the blood sparrow, these creatures live in temperate forests. Coniferous, deciduous, mixed forests, even mountains. they can even gather in towns or cities. Blood swallows become more bold in flocks. When there is only a small amount within an area, for example 1-5, they become extremely skittish. These creatures can be tamed and trained, but only become truly loyal if one rolls over 18 on a Handle Animal check.

May or may not include stats depending on the interest of these creatures for use in D&D games.

This is done by traditional means: No amount of digital work went into this than to arrange the final picture along with the preliminary concept sketches.