Owls
Chairman –King of the forest. He was the eldest of his brood (hatched first). He can turn his face completely backwards – which, as the folklore goes, gives him incredible perspective and insight that led him to his position. Known in every corner of the globe for his wisdom and uncanny foresight.
Rider – Chairman’s only son: a natural athlete and a good hunter, but each time he hunts, gets carried away and squeals. This excitement completely undoes the benefit of silent flight made possible by an owl’s serrated wings.
Olga – As a young owlet, she once crashed into a tree and flattened her facial disks – this means the sound of prey doesn’t filter into her ears properly, so, with a limited hunting ability, she began to starve. The wise owl (after being widowed and starting to get back into life) took her in and helped to feed and shelter her. In return, she is much like a mother to Rider.
Magpies
Rufus – The village jester. He is the best at pranks and loves doing them but he is a little accident prone. His eyes are still dark brown and have developed no red – they really should have by now! Brave and well-meaning.
Leila –– A very vain magpie constantly stealing bright things that allow her to preen. Her best find yet has been a shard of mirror that is now the centrepiece of her nest. Slightly bossy and takes herself much too seriously, but efficient and very loyal.
Swans
Suki – A very beautiful ex-ballet dancer who is eternally pre-occupied with beauty. and is constantly searching for beautiful things to recreate. She is one of the first swans to recognise the negative effects of environmental degradation.
Hiroshi - A very aggressive male swan. He has already had 4 female partners, but none of his relationships seem to last as his possessiveness and over-protectiveness is a huge turn-off to his lovers. When he falls in love he tries to mend his ways but with mixed success.
Ayako – an aging swan from a very prominent swan family, Ayako is the oldest and wisest swan in the community. She is dedicated to preserving swan traditions. As the environment worsens and swan traditions become harder to stage, Ayaka becomes a very public front-runner for saving the environment – which, co-incidentally allows her to help save her species.
Penguins
Nero – unlike all other penguins who have a white underbelly to help with camouflage, Nero has a huge black birthmark on her belly. This is pretty serious if you’re a penguin as it makes it really easy for a leopard seal to spot you – but Nero is an incredible athlete and has never got into trouble. Well, only once. Jacob – Nero’s young and enthusiastic son
Filippa – Nero’s best friend and confidant. She always looks sad and morose because, unlike most penguins who excrete salt from the sea water they drink out their nose, she excretes it out of her eye so she always looks like she’s crying. Despite this, Filippa is bright, positive and always has a spring in her step.
Albert – A big fat penguin that laughs the most at his own jokes in the male huddle. His jokes are notoriously cheesy, but he still finds them funny. His laugh is infectious, much to the dismay of the other penguins, who try hard not to laugh at his feeble jokes, but are always set off into hysterics as well. Albert also has a strange obsession with food. When he was born, his mother was late to return to him and his father with food. When his mother finally returned and he got that first sweet taste of fish, he was instantly hooked and has made sure he never went without for longer than a day ever again.
Fish Eagles
Mazala – A great hunter, loving wife and mother. She got bitten by a crocodile when she first started hunting. Her father had told her that fish eagles could eat most anything in the savannah. ‘Even crocodiles?’ ‘Yes even crocodiles’ – her father assured her. He forgot to mention that they must be small. Mazala went for an impossibly large one that ended up taking one of her legs. Nevertheless, she is still a capable hunter, although has a disproportionate fear of crocodiles. Her partner, Tatak, loves crocodile meat more than anything – which is a cause for domestic quibbles every now and then.
Tatak – a stay at home dad with a heart of gold. He takes great pride in his role as home maker. He was the eldest of his brood – normally fish eagles eat their smaller siblings in the nest (especially if they are the first to hatch), but Tatak couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Gotan – Tatak and Mazala’s teenage son. A bit of a show-off, determined to show his parents he is grown-up. Even though male birds do not hunt – he insists on catching his own food. Most often it’s prey he can’t manage – like the time he caught a 4 pound fish and had to drag it back to land because it was too heavy to fly with.
Hummingbirds
Felizio – A depressive philosopher who spends most of his time in an existential reverie (starvation/hibernation mode) so he can contemplate life and its pointlessness.
Marguerite – Felizio’s aunt. The village gossip. Like all hummingbirds, Marguerite can hover in mid-air… Remarkably, Marguerite can do it in near silence. She is forever eavesdropping on all sorts of conversation and causes chaos as her imagination often intertwines with the truth and, before she even realizes it, she lands in trouble over her webs of lies.
Gonzales – Felizio’s greedy little nephew who lives to eat.After he has eaten all the flowers with a high nectar ratio, he goes back and eats all the flowers with less than 12% nectar that he (and all the other birds) knocked back first time round. Because of his over-eating, he can only flap his wings 15 times a second, not 80! He also eats double his weight in food each day.
Woodpeckers
Walter – A quiet, introverted and revered character. He is known far and wide for his superior pecking ability as he can intuitively find hollow spaces in trees that no other peckers can. The wisest woodpecker in the forest – he knows everything there is to know about it and teaches other peckers.
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Max – Walter’s trusty companion. Fell from his nest at a young age so his mandibular muscles never formed properly. As a result, each time he pecks, he is damaging his brain and is getting progressively thicker with each peck. It started as forgetfulness but quickly expands to encompass clumsiness as well. This is particularly worrying for Max as he is from a family of scholars. But he loves pecking and can’t stop it.
Max is very hands on and practical, but certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed
Starlings
Ricki – Son of the notorious gang-leader Father G and is due to take over the leadership, but can’t quite muscle up the mafia spirit. He prefers to negotiates with the rats rather than use violence with them and tries to lead his followers away from their lives of crime.
Little Major – Ricki’s right-hand man. He once made it all the way inside a restaurant only to fall in a pot of boiling water. He made a lucky escape and now is a motivational speaker working the streets and preaching of a better way to live than to scrounge.
Goslings
Brent & Brenda - this brother and sister duo mean well, but are forever sticking their beaks into everyone else's business. Sometimes this is useful, but most of the time it causes trouble.
The Nightingale
In charge of Chairman's nightly news update: she is slightly blasé about the role to begin, but as the plight of the birds becomes apparent, she develops an unexpected pride and gusto for her newscasting.
Kakapos
Harriet & Jonah - this pair are constantly getting in trouble for being too noisy. It's not really their fault, as Kakapos are born to make loud booming sounds; yet their love for karaoke certainly doesn't help the reputation as noise makers.
Coots
Archie - Somehow, Archie stumbled into the position as Head Coot. No one is more surprised by this post than Archie. He is thoroughly incompetent and always relying on others (especially Theo) to provide practical leadership.
Theo - The leader of the Coots in all but title. He is brave, direct and forever filling in for the utterly useless Archie.
Kingfisher
Marie - The very glamourous leader of the Kingfishers. She is observant, quick-witted and always looks fresh-faced and ready for flight.
Cassowary
Though we never learn his name, we learn quite quickly that he is a very brainy bird with a particular penchant for Chaos Theory.
