Yi qi

Landing from a long glide from a tree on my A4 paper.

Everyone's favourite ''bat-bird'', ''real dragon'' or something around those lines.
It made huge impact when it was announced, with many people regarding it as a true dragon.
However, it isn't any more dragon than a bat is.
At a size of ~300- 400 grams, and a body covered in bird-like feathers, it would hardly come across as a dragon.
With it's membranous wings, Yi can make short glides and can fall from trees without getting hurt: however, it is far from being an aerial pro.
It runs on the thicker branches in the treetops chasing insects and peeling back treebark to forage for larvae, but it's main food source are Williamsonia cones.
With a drastically prolonged, and controlled, leap Yi qi can jump from branch to branch.
During mating season, males put up a dance battle with brilliant colours as seen in the fossils (red membranes), similar to birds of paradise.

Behaviour based off: Sugar glider, pheasant, bird of paradise, hoatzin


The colours used here are semi-supported by research.
The body was found with eumelanosomes, which make bronwn grey and black colours.
The head also had phaeomelanosomes, which would render it more light brown or yellow-ish.

The wings only had phaeomelanosomes, which could make them reddish.


All these melanosomes were probed from the upside of the animal, so the ventral colours are entirely speculative, and I've made them quite vibrant.