Tallbird

"Free from the shackles of the sky."

- Wendy

Tallbirds are tall, two-legged black Birds/Animals that live near their Tallbird Nest. They lay a pale speckled blue or green Tallbird Egg in a Tallbird Nest that the player can collect and either eat (cook or use in the Crock Pot) or hatch it into a Smallbird by placing it near a campfire. 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're nearby the bird itself. If, however, an egg is stolen, the Tallbird will chase the player for a fairly 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, 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 this during the day. The player can push them off the nest and steal the egg. However, they do wake up and give chase.

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. It is recommended to have a weapon (as opposed to a tool) equipped. 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 safe to employ on 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, as they have a high health, this is generally a waste of resources when they can be killed easily 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 four clumps of rocks.
 * Maxwell mentions the Tallbirds may have been a failed experiment.