Introducing Crestrel, the evolution of Micrown!
In case you couldn’t guess from the name and the first half of the dex entry, this pokemon is based off of a kestrel, known for hovering while looking for prey. The rest of its behaviour is inspired by ‘fire hawks’, which are not a specific species but several unrelated birds of prey that take advantage of wildfires and even start them using similar methods to those described here. Whole article about it right here.
At some point I also ended up incorporating some stereotypical old-timey pilot stuff into its design: the flames around crestrel’s neck are a long striped scarf, the skin around its eyes and above its beak (known as a cere) are flight goggles, and the dark patch on the back of its head is the little hat thing.
Name inspo: Crest +kestrel