That’s the upper limit, and very unusual. Average is probably 3. (I should probably reduce it to 4 given its rarity)
And a challenging environment could probably reduce young count naturally.
And fun fact: This is a very old formerly discarded project, and I have been interested in Speculative Evolution for years.
TAXONOMY UPDATE:
One more genus, more systematic approach to the tree
And anyone is welcome to add any ideas (I made the post a wiki)
I would like to imagine a super-hyperparasitoid wasp. Well, someone has to control the hyperparasitoids, right? I’m sure these animals exist, but just give me the next level above that!
I had an entomology professor tell me “If you can imagine something biologically possible, chances are an insect already does it.” So true and makes a lot of sense, they are so diverse!
Lovely graphics, too. 
Thank you so much, @teellbee ! 
(The graphics are about 6 MONTHS old, and only the colours are changed each time)
Ok, once I’m done with the Columba/Streptopelia clade doves looks like I’m starting on the parasitic wasps…
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Nepenthaceae
Genus: Nepenthes
Species: Nepenthes incredibilis
Dr. He Jiesheng continues his botanical exploration of the remote mountains of Yunnan. In an area previously unpenetrated, he came upon this, now the largest known species of tropical pitcher plant. In its enormous pitchers, he found the remains not only of the Black Giant Squirrel – one of the world’s largest squirrels – but even Black Snub-nosed Monkeys and a juvenile Hoolock Gibbon. “The local ethnic minority group has legends of a man-eating plant,” said He, “and though this new species cannot eat a man, it could potentially consume a small child.”
That’s utterly terrifying!
I was going to propose here a species of tree-dwelling turtle in South America in the fictional genus Arboremys and when I searched that name on google, there was a sketch and description of what I was imagining, prepared by someone else!
Alcedophaps
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Subfamily: Columbinae
Genus: Alcedophaps
Species:
A. alcedo : Blue-hearted Kingfisher-dove
A. nigrifrons : Turquoise Kingfisher-dove
A. laetus : Splendid Kingfisher-dove
Blue-hearted Kingfisher-dove
Alcedophaps alcedo
Diet: Seeds, nuts, berries, supplemented with invertebrates
Size: 11 cm
Lifespan: 7 years
Group size: Pair
Habitat: Montane Cloud Forest
Behaviour: Exclusively found within a few metres of the cauliflorous (trunk flowered) and ramiflorous (branch flowered) tree Cyanoperuiflora crinitus of the family Operuifloracea. The plant is covered in large, bright blue flowers on its trunk and leaves creating a flower coating 15 centimetres thick. The birds live near it for camouflage of its nest and when it forages in the surrounding ground, covered in blue flowers.
Due to its small size, it can make a nest concealed in the flowers, and eats the bright blue fruit. This also makes it highly dependant on this tree species in an elaborate symbiosis, as its droppings fertilize the tree, and can accidentally pollinate the plant.
Occasionally moves a few metres away from the grove, to make it much more obvious to mates or competitors or to analyze the environment for dangers.
It is extremely scaredy and super easy to provoke, and immediately darts for the grove of trees it chose to inhabit.
2 weeks incubation
3-4 eggs per clutch, throughout the year but peaking in summertime
Female incubates as it is much darker and more similar to the colour of the tree, while the male is brighter than the flowers to grab the attention of females.
Threats: Deforestation, plant disease (which luckily hasn’t happened yet), invasive snakes
Status: Critically Endangered, due to the fragile symbiosis it has formed
Turquoise Kingfisher-dove
Alcedophaps nigrifrons
Diet: Seeds, nuts, berries, supplemented with invertebrates
Size: 12.5 cm
Lifespan: 6 years
Group size: Pair
Habitat: Montane Cloud Forest
Behaviour: Exclusively found within a few metres of the cauliflorous (trunk flowered) and ramiflorous (branch flowered) tree Cyanoperuiflora fuscus of the family Operuifloracea. The plant is covered in large, darkish blue flowers on its trunk and leaves creating a flower coating 14 centimetres thick. The birds live near it for camouflage of its nest and when it forages in the surrounding ground, covered in blue flowers. This is almost identical behaviour to A. alcedo but the colouration of this species’ host is darker, much like their own colouration.
Due to its small size, it can make a nest concealed in the flowers, and eats the bright blue fruit. This also makes it highly dependant on this tree species in an elaborate symbiosis, as its droppings fertilize the tree, and can accidentally pollinate the plant.
Occasionally moves a few metres away from the grove, to make it much more obvious to mates or competitors or to analyze the environment for dangers.
It is extremely scaredy and super easy to provoke, and immediately darts for the grove of trees it chose to inhabit. Much braver than A. alcedo, though
2 weeks incubation
3-4 eggs per clutch, throughout the year but peaking in summertime
Female incubates as it is much darker and more similar to the colour of the tree, while the male is brighter than the flowers to grab the attention of females.
Threats: Deforestation, plant disease (which luckily hasn’t happened yet), invasive snakes
Status: Endangered, due to the fragile symbiosis it has formed, but it is much more likely to survive such a disaster than A. alcedo
Splendid Kingfisher-dove
Alcedophaps laetus
Synonyms: Papiliopelia laetus
Diet: Seeds, nuts, berries, supplemented with invertebrates
Size: 10 cm
Lifespan: 4 years
Group size: Pair
Habitat: Montane Cloud Forest
Behaviour: When in danger it tucks its beak into its neck, and opens its wings and flaps it. It has evolved as a batesian mimic of the highly toxic Nymphalid butterfly Paramycalesis elegans.
It is easily provokable but only in reasonably dangerous situations will it panic and fly off.
2 weeks incubation
3-4 eggs per clutch, throughout the year but peaking in summertime
Females are far duller and thus incubate the eggs
Threats: Deforestation, invasive predators who lack the experience of eating the butterfly it mimics
Status: Endangered
Remarks: Its differences from the rest of its genus led scientists to place it in its own monotypic genus, Papiliopelia, but recent molecular studies confirm its placement among Alcedophaps.
It coincidentally resembles the Ceyx kingfishers.
that’s a lot of hardwork
Two days to be exact (A total of 6 hours, including the dove template I made a few moths ago)
Thank you very much!
Those are very cute ones!
Teeny weeny sedentary rainbow-coloured doves…
Forgot to mention that A laetus is the world’s smallest dove (the current world record is the Dwarf Fruit Dove at 13, now in 4’th.
So the order is,
Splendid Kingfisher-dove: 10
Blue-hearted Kingfisher-dove: 11
Turquoise Kingfisher-dove: 12.5
Dwarf fruit dove: 13
But considering that the Alcedophaps have longish tails, the body must be even teenier!
They’re very unusual too! The only batesian mimic of insects by birds I know of is the Cinereous mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra) chick which mimics the toxic and irritant hairs of Southern flannel moth (Megalopyge opercularis) caterpillars (the so-called Donald Trump caterpillar)
Cyanoturtur
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Subfamily: Columbinae
Genus: Cyanoturtur
Species:
C. trochilus : Emerald Wood-dove
C. florea : Violet Wood-dove
C. lazuli : Sapphire Wood-dove
C. brunnea : Muddy-faced Wood-dove
Emerald Wood-dove
Cyanoturtur trochilus
Status: Vulnerable
Size: 21 cm
Violet Wood-dove
Cyanoturtur florea
Status: Vulnerable
Size: 17 cm
__
Muddy-faced Wood-dove
Cyanoturtur brunnea
Status: Near-threatened
Size: 16 cm
Sapphire Wood-dove
Cyanoturtur lazuli
Status: Near-threatened
Size: 17 cm
Features of all species
Diet: Seeds, nuts, berries, supplemented with invertebrates
Lifespan: 6 years
Group size: Pair
Habitat: Montane Cloud Forest
Behaviour: Rather standard dove. It makes a nest on rocks, eats fruit, and travels in small flocks. Rather stirrable.
2 weeks incubation
3-4 eggs per clutch, throughout the year but peaking in summertime
Both incubate alternating between 5 hours each
Threats: Deforestation, invasive predators
Remarks: The purpose of the extremely vivid colouration in both sexes remains unknown.
After rodents met their end and ecosystems shifted forth and back again, lagomorphs that survived that event could replace their allies in now opened ecological niches.
Living on the underside of the global ice sheets of Jupiter’s moon Europa, concentrated in areas of greatest tidal motion in the subsurface oceans, kinetophages dangle long tendrils into the currents. All along these tendrils are specialized organs that create small electrical potentials as they flex. This energy is converted into usable biochemical energy through pathways somewhat similar to those used by electric bacteria here on Earth. Indeed, biochemical similarities are such that some exophylogeneticists consider them proof that early Europan life seeded life on earth. Some kinetophages have been shown to use their electrical generation in defense against Europan ocean carnivores, and even against each other in competition for the best spots. Kinetophages so greatly increase the effective surface area of the underside of Europa’s ice sheets that they contribute significantly to the cracking and buckling of ice visible in photos of Europa taken from space in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Never thought of extraterrestrial species!
@fffffffff tree rabbits, Weird.
