No, they would turn into a normal bird. The extra mass is shunted into z-space where afterwards it can be called back to return the shifter to their previous form. Just don't stay a bird for more than two hours.
this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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The real issue is remembering you're not a bird once you have a bird brain
Very Inkspell/Inkdeath.
That's easy enough. But for the love of god, don't morph into colony insects like ants or bees!
NOT THE BEEEES
Animorphs was literally my first thought as well
ctrl-f “z-space”
Aww, yeah.
Oh, Tobias.
Did he ever manage to turn back in later books? It really stuck with me.
I only read the first 34, and he got the power to morph again, but not his human form. I learned how it all ended and stopped reading in anger.
Thanks. That's so sad.
That is a weird way of saying "Humans are bigger than birds," even then though, I think on average the ostrich will win.
Edit: I missed the flying part, but still.
And you missed the part about conserving mass. A bird that can fly, with the mass of a human, would be much bigger than a human (cause birds have very thin, hollow bones).
You seem to be describing density (d = m/v). Preserving mass doesn't really mean anything in this context without a discussion of volume.
why would you assume density would be conserved? all I said was mass so the density would absolutely be variable.
why would you assume density would be conserved?
I didn't. I pointed out that the person I replied was not describing mass.
By quite a lot too. The kori bustard is the heaviest known flying animal at around 18kg or 40lbs.
Marahute!
You ever seen an ostrich?
Bro they are bigger than humans.
Emu as well
Has either of you seen a flying ostrich or emu?
What if you use a trébuchet ?
Please dont introduce emus to siege weapons, they're already a significant military threat without them
Yeah I definitely missed that part. Also pretty sure they can glide. ? Does that count. ?
Have you seen their wings? They're not going to be gliding either.
But for a bird with a human's mass to be able to fly, it would have to be huge. Much larger than an ostrich.
Birds have hollow bones so their mass in comparison to their size is very little.
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not as large as big bird
imagine a human-sized flying bird, that would be terrifying
those are still estimated to have a mass topping out around 40 pounds, so a bird with the mass of a human would probably be more than twice the size of that one, at least.
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Just because mass is conserved doesn't mean size/shape is conserved. If you're always human-sized, you're a pretty shitty shapeshifter. No offense.
thats... the whole point of the post. a bird with a humans mass would be huge. maybe you should have left your shitty assumptions in your ass. no offence.
if a fan was stuck in my ass I'd be a windmill.
sounds like you might have a good idea.
Preserving a mass while maintaining the ability to fly would require you to significantly increase in size, which comes with all sorts of drawbacks.
Humans can't fly precisely because we're too dense. Birds and other flying creatures have plenty of adaptations meant to reduce mass (or, rather, density) by all means possible.
Are you also preserving the ratios of materials that the body is made of? We'd have very heavy bones for a bird (or a lot of bones at bird density) and probably not enough muscle to lift 2m long wings. Also all the keratin in our hair and nails wouldn't make many feathers. We'd be a mostly plucked bird
you would need to turn into something like a Pterosaur given the hollow bones and everything. Those could be anywhere half the mass of a person to like twice the mass or something.
When I was a kid I had a book called The Science of the X-Men (which that site lists for $11 but eBay lists for anywhere from $100-1500) that attempted to use real world physics to explain how the powers of the X-Men might work.
Mostly the explanations came down to "I dunno, maybe black holes?" For example, it speculated that Jean Grey might have a microscopic black hole in her brain and had subconsciously learned to use it to open the other end in other brains and somehow vibrate the brain matter in a way to communicate telepathically.
Anyway, I don't recall whether it covered any shapeshifters, but if so, it probably handled it the same way Animorphs did (as others have mentioned in this thread), but with black holes instead of z-space.
So if they turned into an elephant they'd be the cutest widdle elephant ever??
Yup they'd be a little baby elephant, unless they happen to be one of the heaviest humans alive, in which case they'd be a slightly older baby elephant lol.
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