Creature:Launchpad

Launchpads are a species of duck-like organisms that inhabit one of man's many colony worlds. They are excellent at flying, yet "even better at crashing" - they rarely land successfully and often topple face first into the substrate once their feet touch the ground during a landing. This act causes many colonists to enjoy their existence. However, the local government despises them and hopes they can convince the citizens to let them burn them off the face of the planet, as they have a peculiar animosity towards robotics, often running blindly up to them with wings flapping and squawking before pecking at the robots in some sort of vain attempt to destroy them. If they're not stopped, a flock generally succeeds in ripping the robots apart.

They are also known for having taken old colony starship wrecks as their main nesting sites, specifically the crashsites of the Sun Chaser, the Joyrider, the Hindentanic and the Thunderquack (which was the government's attempt at eradicating the Launchpads, but was brought down when hundreds of the birds flew up and got sucked into the engines).

Sporepedia Description
"Launchpads are lazy, clumsy avianoids which are surprisingly excellent flyers, yet they are particularly bad at landings. They possess a strange animosity towards robots, perhaps indicating a form of [[Wikipedia:Electroreception|electroreceptive interference."

Trivia

 * Launchpad's name and design is inspired by Launchpad McQuack from the Duck universe. Evidence of this can be seen in the webbed feet, the bill design, the hair curl and the coloring.  The eyes were made to appear dopey as a reference to Launchpad's dopey personality.
 * The four ships that the Launchpads have taken as nesting sites are named after four aircraft that Launchpad McQuack flew between DuckTales and Darkwing Duck.
 * The species' supposed animosity towards robots is a reference to DuckTales episode 9, entitled "Armstrong".