Tallbird

"Free from the shackles of the sky."

- Wendy

Tallbirds are tall, two-legged black Birds/Animals which can be encountered in Savannas. Usually they stay near their Tallbird Nest. They lay a pale speckled blue or green Tallbird Egg in their nest the player can collect and either eat (by cooking it or using it in the Crock Pot) or hatch into a Smallbird by placing it near a campfire at night, and on normal ground in day (unless it's winter). Smallbirds will grow into Smallish Tallbirds, which will in turn grow into Tallbirds. Tallbirds take three blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen.

A Tallbird will automatically attack the player or other mobs if they come too close to the nest. They may also attack if they are nearby the bird itself. If, however, an egg is stolen, the Tallbird will chase the player for a very long distance. Tallbirds will also attack Smallbirds when too close, or when a Tallbird is chasing the player with Smallbirds following the player.

Tallbirds take 2.5 days to respawn. They are considered innocent creatures even though they are not passive or neutral, and killing one adds 2 points to the player's naughtiness level, which can cause Krampus to appear.

Night
At night, the Tallbird will go over and curl up into its nest. Sometimes they will also do it during the day. The player can push them off the nest and steal the egg, although sometimes it's possible to steal the egg without touching the Tallbird. However, they do wake up after few seconds and give chase.

Sometimes, Tallbirds will remain "curled up" and asleep, even if attacked, making them really easy to kill.

Fighting Strategy
Tallbirds cannot be stun-locked and are thus quite dangerous in melee combat. They can be kited, though it may be difficult as there is only a short interval between their attacks. To do this, dodge an attack, press the spacebar to attack it once, then dodge again. With good timing, it is very possible to defeat a Tallbird without taking damage.

Tallbirds can be set alight using Fire Darts, causing it to run around. Generally, the fire will go out before doing enough damage. They are generally safe to fire at a Tallbird since they spawn in rocky areas devoid of things that can burn.

A Tallbird can be put to sleep by Sleep Darts after multiple hits, by use of the Pan Flute, or by eating a Mandrake; however using a mandrake is generally a waste of resources when they can be easily killed using other methods.

Trivia

 * Tallbirds run faster than the player. In previous versions, unless killed or gotten stuck they would continue chasing the player forever, because their chase timer used to reset every time they attempted to attack.
 * Tallbirds may spawn together in a Tallfort, where 20 or so Tallbird nests are placed in a square guarding multiple clumps of rocks.
 * Maxwell mentions the Tallbirds may have been a failed experiment.
 * Tallbirds can lunge over small enough gaps between two landmasses (with ocean in the middle) and land a hit on the player.
 * A Tallbird can kill the player in 3 hits if they are not wearing any armour and have full health.