In our guide about the Ichthyornis in ARK: Survival Evolved, you'll learn everything you need to know about the bird. But also where to find it, how to tame it, how to feed it, and how to breed offspring.
Nearly everyone playing ARK had an encounter with the Ichthyornis, which tried, or maybe succeeded, to steal some items. The Ichthyornis is just as annoying as the Pegomastax, which also steals items from you all the time. Depending on the item's value, this hurts really bad sometimes, but only emotionally, of course.
Appearance: The Ichthyornis is a crossbreed between a pelican and a duck.
Wild: In the wilds of ARK, it is one of the most annoying creatures you can encounter because the Ichthyornis will attack you when it sees you and steals some items from you. Even if you don't take any damage, it can always be an important item that gets lost.
The stupid thing about this bird is that it also follows you over long distances when it has chosen you as a target, which usually leads to you finishing it off to have your peace. This, again, is relatively difficult, as it's nimble in the air all the time. Such attacks are especially annoying as soon as it is dark because the Ichthyornis flies out of the light radius of the torch.
Domesticated: If you have tamed an Ichthyornis, you can let it hunt for you. It will attack smaller targets and finish them off. Afterward, it will bring you the glittering corpse you can plunder. Its ability lets you harvest raw prime meat or raw prime fish meat (from fishes) from animal carcasses, even if they normally don't provide you with these resources.
The Ichthyornis is discoverable in these spots:
How to hunt the Ichthyornis: You can try to hit the Ichthyornis in the air with arrows while flying above you, trying to steal items from you. This method can cost nerves and resources, but it's not the only way to stun it.
The Ichthyornis have to land occasionally to recharge their energy, like the Pteranodon and the Tapejara. If it is on the ground, it is easier to catch it with a stun dart, as it is relatively slow on foot.
Tip: Throw a bola at the Ichthyornis while it sits on the ground, which will pin it down. This is a pleasantly easy way if you're not the best shooter and didn't hit it with the previous methods.
How to tame it: Once it's unconscious, put fish or Kibble in its inventory and wait for it to eat them, which leads to taming it. To keep the stun value high while taming, it is best to use Narcoberries or Narcotics.
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Once you have tamed your Ichthyornis, it is important to know what kind of food it likes to eat. Ichthyornis are piscivores, which makes the choice of food more accessible.
This is how you prepare the breeding: If you have a male and female specimen, you build an enclosure that is large enough. Put both dinos in the pen and set them to "wander" via the command menu. Alternatively, you can also switch directly to "Pair", but then there must always be a player nearby. Otherwise, the pairing will stop due to the rendering.
The breeding interval of an Ichthyornis is 18 to 48 hours.
How to Hatch Eggs: The hatching begins when you get a fertilized Ichthyornis Egg from a successful mating. For hatching, the ambient temperature of the egg should be between 29 °C and 32 °C and within the Egg-Incubator at 31 °C. According to standard settings, the little Ichthyornis baby hatches after about 1.5 hours. After that, it needs about 3.5 hours of your attention, during which you must keep putting food in its inventory.
Once it gains juvenile status, it can feed itself from troughs. The total maturation time takes about 1 day and 13 hours.
Beginner tips on breeding in ARK can be found here:
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Are you looking for more helpful guides on ARK: Survival Evolved? Then look at our ARK guide overview, where you will find more of our dinosaur, crafting, resource, and technology guides. You can also chat with us and other players on our Discord server. We're looking forward to seeing you!
