Steelpeckers were a non-sentient species of carrion bird native to the planet Jakku. The birds were ragged and mangy in appearance, with scraggly black feathers. They had strong beaks and talons that were tipped with iron and sharpened on scrap. They fed mainly on metal, to which they were drawn by its magnetic signature. To digest the metal they consumed, Steelpeckers stored vanadium, osmiridium, and corundum in their gizzards. Named for their diet, these birds were useful commodities to scavengers, who collected their carcasses and guano. Steelpeckers were nocturnal.
The steelpecker was created for the movie Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. The concept for the bird originated in a conversation between director J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg, which led to the idea of a bird eating metal. The idea was that the bird would be poking around the innards of a machine and come out all oily and dirty, with filthy rust all over its feathers.
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