Definitely with the wings, though the sensation of birds ‘fluffing up’ because of the cold or illness is almost – to me – like a yawn, something that comes over you and you have to do it, even though you can exert some control over it. It’s a unique feeling.

I’ve been more familiar with bird since being a young child (feline came later). I was obsessed with brolgas, herons, storks and jabiru in particular, and so they sort of laid the foundation for where my interest would lie. I still have that obsession with the entire heron family, and also with storks and anything else has a long neck, a long beak, long legs, and an ability to look completely fierce at the same time. Lol.

I feel a sort of familiarity whenever I work with reptile too (particularly goanna), and I feel that this might be because of my comfort factor with birds.

I have never – at this point – been able to get ‘fish’ though. I remember you once writing about your experiences with salmon, and at this point in my own life, beyond eating and giving thanks, I’ve never really done anything extensive with fish except draw salmon once a long time ago.

If you keep working with birds, I think you will find that it’s really not the differences you notice, but the similarities.

Makhsihed–I like being bird, actually. It’s different, but it was a really cool experience. One of my favorite things about any form of shapeshifting (magical or otherwise) is experiencing the differences in sensory input (or at least the mind and spirit’s approximation thereof). I was actually kind of surprised by the skin and muscle control–when I’ve shifted to wolf, and my “hackles” go up, so to speak, it’s more an instinctive reaction. With birds, the subtle movements seem a lot more controlled and voluntary. I want to do more bird work and keep comparing it to mammal experiences.

Stacey–I love that they’re finding all sorts of evidence for dinosaurs, at least later ones, having feathers. I saw a really cool picture of a feathered raptor-type dino–with blue jay markings! Maybe the dinos are just wearing camouflage these days….

It’s fascinating how similar your experience of bird is to mine, and yet there are differences (like the beak, mostly). And you’ve described and notice things that are so second nature for me that I don’t even really notice them – the minute muscular control, the feather control, and the body-expressiveness.

Yay birdness! Thank you for sharing. :>

There is definitely something alien about them, especially – I feel – when you first get used to it. Eventually it becomes not about what is different, but about the surprising similarities despite a world of difference between ‘warm-blooded human’ and ‘warm-blooded bird.’

I shapeshift to bird naturally, and then to mammal because it’s often easier for where I need to go (sometimes to get to the Underworlds, I swim below an Amazon-style river, as a river dolphin). Some of the most unusual birds I’ve worked with in terms of shapeshifting have been the Hoatzin, many of the Birds of Paradise, the Powerful Owl (which just *saw* differently to us, and was an amazing experience) and the Shoebill Stork. I’m probably forgetting some, since I’ve been working with birds (to the exclusion of other animal types actually, ah well) for as long as I was interested in shamanism.

Pheasant – for me – is a strong energy, and pheasant is one of the gutsiest birds in the bird kingdom when it comes to defending territory and not being afraid of any other creature, no matter how big it is. Or perhaps being afraid, but not actually caring. My grandmother used to own a pheasant, and many other birds for that matter, and so my memories are tied up in sitting by a creature as a small child that wasn’t afraid to show me how much it hated the cage and me… until of course I started to feed it berries and insects.