A whisperbird was a creature known to the Chiss Ascendancy, the nation of the Chiss species. It was represented as a piece in the Chiss strategy board game Tactica, and the Chiss light cruiser Whisperbird of Admiral Ar'alani's Picket Force Six in the Expansionary Defense Fleet was named for it. The whisperbird also shared a name with the whisper bird, an avian native to the moon Yavin 4.
In 18 BBY, after the Ascendancy exiled Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn", the senior captain explained to Ar'alani that Chiss Defense Force Supreme General Ba'kif had been put in a position similar to playing Tactica. He had sacrificed his nightdragon—Thrawn—to the Chiss ruling body of the Syndicure, in order to keep his whisperbirds—those who served under the senior captain.
In the current Star Wars canon, the whisperbird was first introduced as the name of a warship in the 2020 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, the first volume in the Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy written by Timothy Zahn. The creature subsequently made its first appearance in the form of a piece of the Tactica game in a flashback scene in Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, the 2021 final installment of the trilogy.
In the current Star Wars canon, the whisperbird was first introduced as the name of a warship in the 2020 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, the first volume in the Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy written by Timothy Zahn. The creature subsequently made its first appearance in the form of a piece of the Tactica game in a flashback scene in Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, the 2021 final installment of the trilogy.