Spink (bird)

The Spink is a hypothetical future burrowing bird created for the television program The Future is Wild. The spink inhabits the dry cold North American deserts 5 million years from now and grows to 10-12 inches long. The ancestor of the spink is the quail: a type of game bird that spends most of its time on the ground. The spink looks like a mole, with a rounded body and a small beak. Its tail feathers and bird-like feet betray its ancestry. Its wings reduces into spade-like forelimbs, sheathed in keratin. The spink is a colonial bird, dwelling in colonies not unlike those of mole rats and ants. Queen spinks sit on eggs, most of which would hatch into new workers. Spinks eat tubers and create intricate tunnel systems just to find them. However spinks are helpless on the desert surface, where they become prey for deathgleaners.

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