This started out as an avian journal, but along the way I realized that I'm actually a fae, so as of chapter 8, that is the focus of my journal. I do however discuss a number of theories earlier on which might be helpful for context later.
I've figured out what kind of bird I want to base my wings off of. I'm thinking the Golden Eagle. Its feathers aren't exactly as dark as my hair color, but they're pretty dark, so it should work, right? (For anyone wondering about this, feathers are essentially made of keratin, which makes up your hair. Essentially, feathers are modified hair - on humans, at least. So they would be similar to your natural hair color.) I thought about a Bald Eagle's wings, but I never really liked them too much. The one thing that kept coming into my mind for how I wanted my wings to look turned out to be the patterns in a Golden Eagle's wings, and so I eventually looked up different eagles. When I saw images of Golden Eagles, it felt right. I guess that's saying something. And isn't being mythical about following what calls to you? So if a Golden Eagle calls to me, I should probably answer.
There was another avian book on Wattpad talking about how you didn't need to modify your bone density in order to fly, however as I brought this up to someone else, they made a very good point about how birds with heavier bone density can't really fully fly, like vultures and chickens. Chickens might be able to leap a fence , but they can't stay airborne, because of how dense their bones are. And Vultures, they can take off, but all they can really do is glide, which is why they circle in order to stay in the air. This is because their bones are heavy. But even they have somewhat "spongey" bones. Human bone density is a lot more heavy than any bird, so even if a human grew wings, the most they could do is glide from a high place if they didn't change their bone density.
So...yeah. I'm going to be doing research on bone density in birds. Well. Bone density, muscle and fat distribution specifically. If I can figure out how it's distributed in bird physiology, I can use that info to modify my own body. But I also want to make sure my bones are properly reinforced - I don't want my bones to become brittle.
There's still so much I have left to research. I haven't even really tried to m-shift (keyword: tried) (also yes growing wings is not shifting, this is more of a term to describe adopting an avian mindset), because I want to make sure I know my stuff. I need to look up how wings are structured as well. I'm sure it'll seem simple once I get all the knowledge down, but right now it seems like a lot of info to take in.
{Sidenote: sometimes I think about having talons, but I don't want to permanently transfigure my hands or feet like that. But thinking about it is really fun.}
Oh also! I was originally going to get this for Halloween, but it won't arrive before November. But I love it so much that I decided to get it anyway:
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I know it's technically a harpy outfit, but it looks really close to the style I want. Looking at it makes me feel inexplicably happy. When I made the decision to buy it (and it wasn't cheap) my euphoria went through the roof. And I knew I made the right decision.
