I don't know what I'm doing

I've been wondering lately if I'm a therian, otherhearted, or something else. I don't want to claim I'm a therian if it turns out I'm just misunderstanding the term, but I get conflicting answers everywhere I look for a solid definition. I don't really get what it means to "involuntarily identify as a non-human animal" which is a commonly listed requirement, since I know that I was born a human and I have a human body/brain, etc. I've always been fascinated with flight, and I somewhat frequently feel this sense of longing to be something more avian, but I can't tell if this is just WANTING to be a bird or something more essential to my identity. I like to think of my bed as a nest and I love wearing anything that even vaguely resembles wings/feathers, almost like gender euphoria but different I think. I love it when people portray me as a crow (sometimes when my artist friend draws our friend group they just draw me as a crow since they know I really like crows) but I don't know if this means I'm a therian or if I just really like crows. I frequently think about what it would be like to be a crow, and I love playing video games where you get to be a bird. I also frequently wear ponchos/shawls because it kinda mimics wings in a way, and want to make my own poncho at some point that looks like feathers

The crux of it is that if you see yourself as or consider yourself to be a nonhuman animal in some significant way, then most folks would consider that standard therianthropy. It's perfectly fine if you acknowledge you're in a human body/were born a human/etc.; the how of the identity as a nonhuman isn't a requirement, just that it's something real and important to you on some level. Some people find psychological or spiritual explanations useful, for instance, but plenty of other folks don't have an explanation for why they're nonhuman at all. And not all therians identify as fully nonhuman, either! Plenty of people see themselves as an equal or unequal mix of human and animal, whether that be 20/80, 50/50, or even somehow 100/100. All in all, it's a deeply personal journey.

I would recommend checking out some avian therians' writings to see if they click or are relevant to your experiences; the Alterhuman Archives has an Avian tag you can look through, but you can also find plenty by searching through Tumblr as well. There are also questioning guides out there, like Are You A Therian? by Strill (2008) and How to Determine if You Are a Therianthrope by Therian Nation (2018) from the old Project Shift resource website, and Identifying Your Otherkin Species: Ten Tips for the Terminally Tantalized by Sprite Rêvenchate (2004) from Otherkin.net-- but I think it's wise to take any questioning resources you see with a grain of salt, because they're inevitably going to be influenced by the writer's own Awakening process and the time period/community they were written in. You're the only one who can really say for certain if you feel like the word therian is accurate to describe your experiences.

(link tracker removed, dw)

AVIAN ALTERBEINGS/NONHUMANS/ALTERHUMANS. LOOK AT THESE WINGS

I have never seen cosplay wings move as realistically as these. They look relatively cheap to make too, once you figure out the mechanics

I stumbled across these photos while I was looking for information about leafcutter bees, and I just wanted to share them, because they're really remarkable. The images were captured by an amateur photographer named Laurence Sanders, and they depict an unprecedented scene that garnered the attention of both entomologists and arachnologists.

The photos show a leafcutter bee and a wolfspider living in the same burrow.

The leafcutter bee (Megachile macularis) can be seen fetching freshly-cut leaves, which she'll use to line the inner walls of her nest, while the wolfspider sits at the entryway to the burrow; as the bee approaches, the wolfspider moves aside, allowing her to enter the nest, and then she simply watches as the leaf is positioned along the inner wall.

Once the leaf is in position, the bee and the spider seem to inspect the nest together, sitting side-by-side in the entryway. The leafcutter bee seems strangely at ease in the presence of the wolfspider, which is normally a voracious predator, and the wolfspider seems equally unfazed by the fact that it shares its burrow with an enormous stinging insect.

The man who took these photographs discovered the peculiar scene by accident, and he then captured a series of images over the course of about two days (these are just a few of the photos that were taken). During that two-day period, the bee was seen entering the nest with bits of foliage dozens of times, gradually constructing the walls and brood chambers of its nest, and the spider was clearly occupying the same burrow, but they did not exhibit any signs of aggression toward one another.

The photos have been examined by various entomologists and arachnologists, and those experts seem ubiquitously surprised by the behavior that these images depict. The curator of entomology at Victoria Museum, Dr. Ken Walker, noted that this may be the very first time that this behavior has ever been documented, while Dr. Robert Raven, an arachnid expert at the Queensland Museum, described it as a "bizarre" situation.

This arrangement is completely unheard of, and the photos are truly remarkable.

Sources & More Info:

Brisbane Times: The Odd Couple: keen eye spies bee and spider bedfellows in 'world-first'