“Sensitive to vapours, they tend to die when monstrous poisons are detected nearby.”
-
Canaries are the Birds that spawn instead of Crows near Friendly Scarecrows. Similar to Crows, Canaries can land in most Turfs, except Grass Turf. It has a 9% chance of dropping Saffron Feathers when killed. They fly down from off-screen and peck the ground for a few moments, then fly away. When they take flight, there is a chance that Seeds are left behind, unless it's Winter. Birds will also be attracted to Seeds left on the ground. If the player or most other mobs get too close, birds will be frightened away. Birds won't land on Sticky Webbing and will swiftly fly away if they have already landed.
When killed, birds drop a Morsel or a Feather, and all other birds nearby will fly away. They are considered innocent creatures and killing them directly adds points to the player's naughtiness level, which causes Krampus to appear. Killing a Canary adds 2 point to the player's naughtiness level.
Birds inside the player's inventory will starve in 2 days unless they are fed with Seeds.
When placed in a Bird Cage in Caves while the Toadstool is alive, the Canary gets poisoned after 6-12 minutes, giving a Volatile Canary.
The player can then take the bird back on the surface and free it. The Canary then drops 5-6 Saffron Feathers and flies away. Dropping a volatile Canary on the ground in the Caves will make it explode and drop 1-2 Saffron Feathers. The explosion can turn a nearby Toadstool into a Misery Toadstool. Murdering a volatile Canary only drops 1 Rot. Volatile Canaries can also be used to craft Napsacks.
Resources
Birds can drop a variety of basic resources instead of seeds to help new players when they fly away. If the world is younger than 3 days, seeds will drop instead of other items. These common items are randomly chosen, and a given item won't drop if there is already a type of the same item within a radius of 2 tiles. Items will also not drop if 2 of same type of items are within a radius of 5 tiles. The item depends on the age of the oldest player within a 5 tiles radius:
Player age
Birds Item
< 1 day
13%, 3.5%, 2.3%, 1.2%
1 day
15%, 2.5%, 1.7%, 0.8%
2 days
17%, 1.5%, 1%, 0.5%
≤ 20 days*
20%
≤ 1 year
16%
> 1 year
12%
*The actual value is the duration of Autumn, which is 20 days in the default settings.
Hunting
Birds can be caught using a Bird Trap. Placing the trap on the ground will eventually catch a bird even without bait. Adding bait such as Seeds or Berries will greatly decrease the time it takes to catch one. They can be Murdered by right-clicking them in inventory to produce a Feather or Morsel, or be cooked on a fire for a Cooked Morsel. Birds in the player's inventory can be dropped on the ground and will flop on the ground belly-up for a short while before flying off. They can also be imprisoned in Bird Cages.
Hunting Birds requires a ranged weapon such as a Boomerang. Birds will not land within melee range (even if bait is placed on the ground) and will fly away when the player approaches. However, if they are put to sleep when using characters with a normal damage modifier, they can be killed in 1 hit with a sufficient melee weapon.
If a bird is in flight while in range of a sleeping item's effect, it will plummet to the ground and can be picked up as an item.
Wearing a Feather Hat will increase the number of Birds spawning as well as decreasing the time between spawns. Using Birds of the World (while playing as Wickerbottom) will also cause a large number of them to land.
One can send a Smallbird to attack a Bird. This can be done without the bird getting frightened and without raising naughtiness.
They take one blast from the Ice Staff to be frozen and one Sleep Dart to be put to sleep.
Usage
Or
×4
Tips
When bait-trapping Birds for their Feathers, players should make sure to do so on Turf in which specific Birds will spawn, so that they get specific Feathers. Redbirds and Snowbirds spawn most commonly on Grass Turf, while Crows spawn on Rocky Turf and all player-made turfs.
If one can manage to bring a Damaged Bishop from the Ruins, their ranged blasts are an effective tool to hunt birds without expending resources on Bird Traps or Boomerangs.
If the player doesn't want any Feathers from the Birds, cooking them alive provides a guaranteed Cooked Morsel. Note that this means sacrificing the option of turning the Bird into Small Jerky, since cooked meat cannot be hung on a Drying Rack.
If the player character has a damage modifier < 1, Boomerangs will not kill birds with one hit, allowing them to flee. Alternatively, the player can use an Ice Staff to freeze the bird then use melee to kill them.
Trivia
Canaries were introduced in the Warts and All update.
Woodie strongly dislikes birds. He says they are evil and should be punished.
Wickerbottom refers to several of the birds by their scientific names. Canary: Serinus canarius, the Atlantic canary, which is the most common canary in captivity.
When stunned, Birds can be stolen by Prime Apes and stored in their inventories.
Real-life canaries are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation. In-game Canaries getting poisoned when in caves is a reference to their historical use, warning miners that air was running out by dying.
Winona's quotes reference this fact. Evidently, she used to be a miner as well, which is also referenced in her quote for the Miner Hat. ("I put that behind me.")
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these Mobs
