Ridgebeak

A very large, flightless bird, the ridgebeak is named for the sharp points that form on the top of their beaks, like the teeth of a knife. These ridges are sharp enough to cut flesh when the ridgebeak headbutts an opponent. These ridges are dull in hens, while roosters sport many dazzling colors on their beaks.
  Ridgebeaks can stand eyelevel with any human, and the largest males can even see eye-to-eye with giants. Although their primary weapon is their beaks, the ridgebeak sports curved, semi retractable talons that can be used to hold struggling prey or retracted while running to keep from becoming dull. Their wings are small, but sport long feathers for displays during mating season.
  Ridgebeaks are natural ambush predators, and can hit speeds of forty miles per hour for short bursts, and they typically aim to use their muscular head and necks to knock prey off their feet, where they can make the kill without spending all their energy in the chase.

Mature ridgebeaks will breed in the Days of War, when the second star draws closer and makes nights brighter.
  The rooster's beak and legs become flush with bright colors, to show their general health, and they will seek out any hens within their vast territories to mate with. He must chase away all rivals as he searches, destroy any nest he finds to ensure that no one else can lure the hens out of his territory, or get ideas to steal the land from him.
  Once he finds a female, the rooster will start a dance from a distance, each step taking him closer as he bows and hops, beating his flightless wings to draw her attention. If the female is receptive, she will remain as he draws near, and flee if she is not. Once close, he will clack a song with his bright beak, sticking his head toward the hen to seal the deal with a gentle touch to her own beak's ridges. If the hen is suitably impressed, she will allow him to breed, then follow the rooster as he continues patrolling his territory for other hens. She will follow for up to ten days, at which point she will lay their single egg.
  Ideally, the male will have gathered up all the nearby hens by this tenth day, and built a large nest for all them to lay in. If he mistimes it, or takes to long to build the nest, the female will lay the egg and abandon it without a nest. Once the females have laid their eggs, their job is done, and they will wander off to fill their other needs. It is not uncommon for a ridgebeak hen to lay up to a dozen eggs, each with a different rooster, over the course of the breeding season.
  The rooster is now in charge of the whole clutch, and must protect the eggs fiercely from both natural and demonic predators. The eggs will hatch in a handful of weeks, and the chicks will depend on him for a further 10 years.

Ridgebeaks have three distinct growth stages, with their own needs and methods for survival.
  Chicks hatch a mottled, muted brown, to best hide amongst the sharp shrubbery that their nests are built with. In the first years of life, they are dependent upon their fathers, who stands guard while his offspring explore and eat the berries and seeds around his territory. They will occasionally supplement their diet with scraps of flesh from the father's kills, but their beaks are not sharp enough to tear out significant pieces till they reach adolescence.

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Adolescence is jarring for the young ridgebeaks, for this is the time that their father will chase them out his territory, even kill them for a meal if he manages to catch them. The young flightless bird must wander far and wide to find their food and water, while avoiding others of their kind that would be aggressive. This constant threat from predators, their own kind, and starvation as they must also develop their methods for hunting to feed a growing reliance on meat, make the young ridgebeaks desperate.
  At some point in most birds' lives, they turn to aiding hunting humans in return for a portion of the kill. Particularly intelligent ridgebeaks have even been witnessed to make specific calls for their human helpers, leading them to prey or the occasional bee hive. Both parties get to enjoy the rewards, and this relationship can last for over a decade with wild ridgebeaks, so long as the bird is never forgotten when it comes time to divide the prize.

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Adult ridgebeaks rapidly lose their fondness for humans, as their desire to mate and reproduce grows. Humans become a threat and competition, even prey to their fully carnivorous diet. The females grow darker in color, while males gain a bright beak for display. It is not advised to interact with wild adult ridgebeak.

Ridgebeaks are only considered domesticated by technicality. Most are gathered from the wilds during their more friendly adolescent stages, due to eggs and chicks being aggressively guarded, and adults being to wild.
  For the decades that ridgebeak are young, they can be taught to be effective guards for herdsman flocks, or partners during a hunt for wild game. Indeed, the ridgebeak can be quite protective of its territory even before maturity. They can be taught to regard flocks as their 'brood', and will kill and eat any predator that is smaller then themselves that threaten them, making them more capable of guarding the longer they are kept with the flocks and herds.
  However, once a ridgebeak reaches sexual maturity it will rapidly become aggressive to any other species in its area. Those kept in captivity will even attack their caretakers. This danger to citizens means that either the ridgebeak is culled or release back into the wilds.