Metalias

Metalias are birds of prey of about 1m40 in size and 1m20 long in flight. These birds have the rare intelligence to make up an "armor", based on pieces of metal or materials that are malleable under heat but strong over a large part of their body. This behavior makes it one of the most dangerous aerial predators to date.
The "forge" ritual is sometimes performed for several long hours over several days, approximately every 15 months to improve, or simply to fix it, to repair it: At that time, the Metalias were extremely vulnerable. In order to make their sturdy metal armor, these birds of prey use the extreme heat of the water geysers in their environment and their long beaks that are easily resistant to it.

Hunting and Fighting

Hunting often takes place at the beginning or end of the day. After spotting its prey with its extremely sharp eyes, the bird usually surprises it with a dive attack. It is never completely vertical, but generally keeps an angle of 20 to 40°. The attack is made from the back of the prey, in order to reduce the risk of the falcon being spotted. The dive speed is not constant and varies according to the attacker's changes in angle and wing movements, which are necessary to adapt to the prey's trajectory.
At the end of the dive, the animal returns to a more or less horizontal position. In practice, it can continue to go down, be really horizontal, even make a resource and go up slightly. The final approach depends on the prey's reaction. It can be picked up directly with the talons, or struck with them, and recovered when it falls, or even to the ground. The struck prey is thus destabilized and kills itself upon impact with the ground or receives a fatal beak blow behind the neck. The metalias beak also has a specific notch that helps it cut through the vertebrae of its prey.
When the animal achieve to avoid the first direct hit with the beak or its talons, sometimes the metalias make use of the metallic behavior of its wings to stun its prey.

Speed

Much has been written about the issue of the speed of the metalias in a dive. However, it is necessary to distinguish between the theoretical speeds estimated in aerodynamic calculations, the maximum speeds reliably recorded, and the average speeds actually used by the species.
According to Pok'Rias studies on these bird (Public through Hel'Ios), a theoretical calculation based on the bird's mass, volume, aerodynamic coefficient, angle of its trajectory with the ground and length of this trajectory would make it possible to consider speeds above 480 km/h for very vertical angles and prolonged nose-down flight.
Apart from these extreme cases, concrete speed measurements during the plunging phase of the attacks generally and more reasonably vary between 170 and 216 km/h.
In any case, the metalias is considered to be the fastest natural bird in the world, at least in a dive. Despite its lightning attacks and cutting blows, the metalias regularly misses its prey (~38% rate): It is not easy to dive down to follow a bird or a deer that has spotted its attacker.

Genetic Descendants

• Energia Metalias

On 2248, the highest peak speed of a Metalias has been at 634.6 km/h.
It is important to note that this type of study is based on the aerodynamic shape of a bird in a long dive, and that there is no evidence that animals actually use such high speeds, if only because of the severity of the impact when the prey is struck.