Blindbird

Blindbird is a species of Hobgoblin that inhabits the Hedge. They are scavangers and carrion-eaters. Harbingers of bad luck that appear when death is nearby.

Overview
Blindbirds take on the characteristics of the local avian carrion-eaters. Condors and vultures appear on occasion, especially in the dry desert Hedge, but changelings by far most often report spotting corvid blindbirds. The large, sleek black creatures typically travel in murders, and are usually espied in the distance, perched carefully on the Brambles like some black blanket thrown over a hedgerow or floating in lazy circles in the sky above. Blindbirds are named for their eyes, which universally appear to have been gouged out, often leaving burnt pits behind. Despite their apparent blindness, these creatures suffer no perception penalty.

Carrion birds have long hounded the dreams of the dying. Blindbirds manifest in the Hedge, whether as a response by the Hedge itself to such dreams or by the twisted whim of the Others, particularly in places plagued by death, whether battlefields, ganglands, cities suffering epidemics, or even the occasional hospital. Like the rats that flee a sinking ship, blindbirds are harbingers of ill omen. Many changelings believe they can sense death and are attracted to it.

Blindbirds only approach if they feel they have something to gain, most often when an individual is so exhausted they can attack her without fear of reprisal. Changelings do, on occasion, make deals with blindbirds, usually for bits of goblin flesh (eyes are the favored delicacy). The birds speak with high, croaking voices in short, clipped phrases. For reasons unknown they speak of past events in the present tense and current events in the future tense. They never discuss the future.