I had this simple idea for my submission, but I wasn't sure if it'd be enough, especially given Beak Blast. I did try to give it more bird-like traits, and I was even settling on an owl-like design below that I was fond of:
This last version was made after I scrapped the puffin missile design idea, and I was almost gonna go with this until a couple of people on Discord told me how much they liked the dreamcatcher compared to the owl, which surprised me. Had a back and forth about it because I worried about Beak Blast, and decided to just wing it anyway since people liked it so much. So I scrapped the owl and went back to the dreamcatcher, toned down the bird elements and went the Sigilyph route. If Sigilyph can be part flying, then so can a dreamcatcher
There's some remnants of the owl in there with how the spikes are positioned if you squint at least. I will miss that top knot though...
The eye pattern was actually based off of a dreamcatcher with the same pattern, but I can't seem to find it now. Much as I wanted to make it complex, most patterns are flower-like, which didn't feel fitting for a dark type.
I think the other hardest part was deciding how to do the (tail) feathers and wings. Solved that issue with the wings by referencing Sigilyph, but wasn't sure on the feathers because a lot of the time they looked too blocky or cloth-like. After awhile I did figure out that making them rounder and more drop-shaped fixed this issue (along with shortening 2 of them), and even accidentally added the middle black line to make them even more like feathers. Colors are simple, I just borrowed them from Murkrow lol