Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-34030170-20180915154603

Birds are cool additions to the mod, with their annoying thievery and endless chirping. However, the majority of them don't really do much. For this suggestion, I'll be proposing an improvement/addition of several types of birds.

Behaviour
Gorcrows, Crebain, Crows, Vultures (See below), etc, would all exclusively steal meat, whether it's rotten, raw, or salted. They'd also do a very slight amount of damage while doing so, say 1 health point, to represent them violently attacking people for food. Gorcrows would prefer raw or rotting flesh to cooked, and do slightly more damage. All birds would flee a short distance if hit. Crebain and Gorcrows would also attack vanilla animals (small ones, pigs, sheep, chickens, etc). Crows would spawn in larger flocks around the Misty Mountains foothills, and around Dale and Erebor. All would have hideous, grating cries.

Taming
Crebain and Crows could both be tamed with raw meat. Not much would be needed, maybe 2-4 pieces. For Crebain, 25+ Isengard alignment would be required, and Gundabad for Crows. Taming one would spawn about 5 others, also tamed. These tamed birds would function like cheap air units, would attack enemies and nearby animals if nothing else is nearby.

The real use of these would be eliminating the debuffs of Orcs in the daylight. Any non-Uruk Orc within a 4 block radius of a hired bird would lose their weakened state. If this sounds random, it comes from Bolg's armies bringing flocks of Crows with them, creating a darkness around them. (Note: It's possible I made this up, but I have no copy of the Hobbit at hand, otherwise I'd check. Feel free to debunk this in the comments.)

Vultures
Vultures would be a new bird added. They'd spawn in the deserts and Mordor in small numbers and follow mobs who have lost health or are at low hunger (low enough that the ability to sprint has vanished). Like the other birds mentioned, they would steal food from players. The most unique feature about them would be that if a player reaches 4 health points or has completely empties their hunger bar, they will begin attacking. Vultures would be weak, having about as much health and damage as swans.

And that's it for my suggestion. This would add a few more features to birds and evil players, and I think it would add a new element of danger to certain areas of Middle-earth. Feel free to leave criticism in the comments. 