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EDIT: 26-09-08
Well cheers! I won the Contest 20! [link]
So Woo! Birdies are now contest winners! hehe.
Thankies to everyone who voted for the pretty birdies! Without you I couldn of won! ..obviously. Still! Very cool! This is like, only the third or so contest I've entered on there so yayness.
So yeah, thanks again to everyone who voted and congrats to the other winners! People worked hard and good luck for future contests! Woo! ^^

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Sooo.. here's a pic that's been a long time coming. I've had these birdies in my head for a stupidly long time.. and then comes along a with a contest about Pokemon 'Adaptions' and wallah! An excuse to draw my high altitude Pidge's!

So yes.
(I've written too much about these birds, you don't care to know about the detailed lives of these things, don't read! ^^ It blabbers a lot.. so fair warning and all!)



Mountain Pidge' (Common name: Whitewing)

Found almost exclusivly in the highest reaches of the Champion Ranges boarding the Kanto/Johto regions these high flying birds are very rarely seen.


Appearance
Covered in a thick grey white down, they have adapted to their inhospitable clime in some of your more subtle yet powerful ways. Gaining a tripple thickness to their feathery hides with not one, but two thick layers of down and a considerably coarse covering of semi-water proof feathers overlaying these. Whitewing Pidge' have adapted to keep as much of the cold out as possible while retaining just as much of their own self generated heat. Giving them the ability to withstand the cold tempretures created by such high altitudes and weather as they are most commonly found in.

With thick 'leggings' that not only cover these birds legs, but partially over their talons, with enough room to cover their feet entirely when settled. It is these feather patternings that help to add to the distinction between Mountain Pidge and their Tundra cousins with the Tundra Pidge' having a complete talon covering where in most cases a Mountain Pidge will have feathers growing only down to their ankles.

The other distinct feature of the Mountain Pidge' family line is it's sheer size and highly sort after grey flecked white plumage. Growing to at times twice the size of the Common Pidgeot, the Mountain Pidgeot is rivalled only by the Northern Pilot Pidgeot in size among it's extensive family tree.

The white and grey plumage of a full grown Mountain Pidgeot is only gained in the final stage of it's evolution. With both Pidgey and Pigeotto sporting a mottled grey shading thought to of evolved from the need to blend with their rocky mountain nesting sites where not a scrap of brown is to be found. Though occasionally it has been spotted that a Pidgey may sport some brown feathers, dusty or dirty in complextion, none have been seen to date still sporting these colourisations once evolved through either further stage. With the grey and white pigmentations of this subspecies seen to override any attempt of otherwise. With a few exceptions noted of both Pidgetto and Pidgeot seen with pale yellow or amber crest plumes, with only three recorded cases retaining these colourisations past their second or third molt.

The distinct grey/white colourisation of the Mountain Pidgeot is thought to of come about from a natural adaption of blending with it's surroundings. It's grey speckled white underside making it almost invisible against the semi-permanet sky cover that hovers around the Champion Ranges, while it's grey backing blending just as easily with the featureless grey rock of the mountains themselves. More than once a researcher who had thought themselves alone discovered to their surprise they had been being watched the entire time and only by the impulsive movement of the Pidgeot in question discovered they had had company for so long. The grey and white feathering with the speckled breast blending so seamlessly with their surroundings.


Life Cycle
Mountain Pidget have been noted to mate for life. Producing up to four offspring in one clutch over the period of four years. Mating in the early Autumn the couple will both share in the brooding of the nest until the first month of spring where within two weeks all the eggs will hatch. Over the next two and a half years the parents will nest and feed the chicks until their fledgling feathers are gained (around a year and a half). Over the next year the chicks will slowly begin small test flights around the small ledges of their nest, gaining strength in their wings and talons while still being fed by their parents until evolution is triggered.
Once the Pidgey have become Pidgeotto they will remain with their parents for another year, further increasing the strength in their wings and their flying abilities with longer and longer flights around their nesting area.
It has been discovered that Mountain Pidgeot are one of the most caring and maternal sub-species of Pidge' found, at least through this stage of the chick's life. Both parents will assist in teaching the young pidge' to hunt and how to survive in the harsh peaks of the Champion Ranges until a new autumn arrives where upon the parental figures will simply not allow the chicks to return to the nest one day. It may take days, even weeks before the young Pidgeotto will leaving the nesting area and it has been spotted more than once the once loving and caring parents of these birds driving away the young with fierce blows of wings and talons.

80% or higher of young Mountain Pidge' do not survive their first winter out of the nest. Many succumbing to the weather before finding their way to the lower mountain ranges where most Mountain Pidgeotto spend their adolecent years in less harsh climes and altitudes. Gaining the survival skills that will take them through adulthood once fully evolved and ready to return to the high mountains their parents call home.


Habitat
Mountain Pidge' are found almost exclusively in the Champion Ranges dividing the Johto and Kanto boarders, arcing up along the northern head of the Kanto region. Pidgeot found only in the highest most hard to reach areas with Pidgeotto being the more commonly seen and found stage of this sub-species of Pidge' as they can be discovered in the lower, more hospitable areas of these ranges.
Due to their large size and the terrain they use as their hunting grounds as well as the fact these birds live in pairs for their entire lives a Mountain Pidge' can have a territory of over a hundred miles squared which can take days to pass over in flight. It is not uncommon that during non-breeding years that Mountain Pidge will not return to the same nest for weeks, even months at a time.

With the inhospitable nature of the terrain these birds live in, their diet is fairly selective. Restricted to those hardy species that can themselves survive the harsh conditions of the mountain range. A Pidgeot is likely to fly days between meals, longer when the winter storms strike and conditions are impossible to fly, even for these sturdy masterful birds.

Pidgeotto are more commonly found to have a fairly varied diet when laid against that of their older brethern as they are not limited by a set territory or the barrenness of the higher mountains. It would be expected that more Mountain Pidge would simply choose not to evolve and remain on these less harsh and trying hunting grounds, but careful observation has shown that though there is not a high number of young birds that anually arrive to replace those birds who have evolved and moved back to the mountains or simply died. There is enough of an influx that it works effectively as a population control by pushing those older birds to fight for their position, to contend against each other against he push of the younger birds, giving them that edge to need, to want to evolve so as to get away.

It is only during the Pidgeotto stage of a Mountain Pidge's life that they are found to be highly communal. As Pidgey they associate with their nest mates and parents, as Pidgeot they do the same in near reverse, keeping company with their mate and nestlings. It is only during the years when they live in the lower mountains that any number of Pidgeotto can be found together in the rocky cliff faces of the lower mountains. Using their numbers to fend off any would be attackers and predators who find this to be the best opportunity to gain Pidge' flesh for their diet.
As by nature these birds are solitary creatures, deviating from the Common Pidge' in this respect also, it is not unusual that the majority of these birds find themselves drifting slowly further and further from the large colonies of Pidgeotto brethern as they come closer to their fully adult growth and evolution. It is simply a natural transition as indepence is found and they drift away.


... and i f I type anymore I'm gonna fall over. That's enough! Don't need more! No one's gonna read this and if they do and for some absurd reason they want more info, leave it in a comment. x.X Quart to four in the morning n I've been writing this for an hour. Night! ^^