Trinket Snatching Terrors

A common subspecies of dragons that stays about the size of a small bird for an absurdly long period of time. They often lie in wait along popular trade routes to snatch away small goods for their caves. Jewelry and coin bags tend to be the easiest for them to fly off with. The terrors, despite their name, are really a mild threat until they eventually meet their age of maturity - and even then, will usually keep to themselves if they've gathered enough of a hoard in their youth.

Habitat
Caverns or ruins that have relatively nearby roads, sometimes they make temporary roosts in hard to reach heights within cities, temples, or castles.

Biology
Their scales and abilities can vary greatly between species, but they all share a love for shiny objects and stay small for over several hundred years.

Pigeon Wyverns

Fire breathing, pudgy, and overall goofy little critters. They tend to have either green or red scales and spikes along their spines. These dragons can make quick work of rat populations and are often welcomed into cities because of this. Despite their waddle of a walk, they are rather talented flyers... unless they’ve found too many treasures. Pigeon wyverns collect trinkets within their mouth, temporarily hoarding their finds in a pouch under their chin - much like a pelican. This can, on very successful treasure hunts, unbalance their flight and force them to try waddling the whole way to their home. Do not be fooled by their appearance as they are still dragons that can and will bite or claw off the fingers of their enemies. They are the least clever of the three trinket snatchers and will not understand or care for teamwork.

Macawtrices

They are flightless but incredible at climbing trees, mountains, and other structures. These colorful chicken sized beasts can be found with a mixture of red, yellow, and blue scales and feathers making up their form. Macawtrices favor plants and insects for their diets, which can make them desirable to have in mosquito infested swamps. Much like the infamous cockatrice they’re named after, meeting eyes with these terrors can result in petrification of their victims. Thankfully, it does wear off within a few hours. They tend to raid ruins and temples of treasure and somehow are clever enough to get past traps with ease.

Seagull Serpent

Graceful swimmers that favor the beaches and port cities. The Seagull Serpent is one of the more pleasing to look at of the trinket snatchers, making them a common companion to folks who travel the seas. Their white or pearly scales are smooth and allow water to roll off with ease, they lack wings entirely and instead have fins along their spine to help them zip through waves. Unlike the other two, these ones have front claws to assist in their treasure snatching efforts. Fishermen are rarely fans of seeing flocks of these creatures, as they do not hesitate to steal fish along with shiny lures. However they can understand human speech and are the most likely to form alliances with another species.

Sociability
They are usually comfortable with each other outside of their lairs and can be seen in small flocks of 3 or 5 when searching for food. Treasure hunts meanwhile, are done solo as they have no interest in sharing their tiny hoards. They can take several hundred years to reach maturity, but once they do they will have up to a dozen eggs every time they mate. Adults do not seem to care for loyalty with breeding, instead depending on their mate to simply not steal from their hoard. The populations are mainly kept in check due to how easy the young are to kill and how ridiculously long it takes them to reach the age they can reproduce at. During their extensive youth, they are cautious of humans and other encounters, meaning they are more likely to flee than risk a fight they can’t win. Getting any of these species to cooperate can be a challenge, but not entirely impossible. Adults however are far more aggressive, and rather be left in peace with their hoards than bother roaming the world.