Cam Collingwood

Cam Collingwood is an anthropomorphic ivory-billed woodpecker with a sharp beige/ivory beak, an overall black plumage with white streaks on his neck, a messy red crest, yellow sclera with black pupils and a smug expression on his face at most times. He is usually seen wearing a red long-sleeved lumberjack shirt with black checkers on it (which is often replaced by a short-sleeved version during hot days), topped off with a brown vest (this can be removed when he is off-duty). He wears blue, black or dark green baggy pants tucked into his sharp-tipped brown boots. His dark red cowboy hat is only worn when he is on duty or during formal occasions and he is usually depicted without it. He serves as a law bird (or "honorary cow", as some may call him) and collaborates with other cowboys whenever they need a bit of extra help. When Cam isn't reeling in bad guys or lending others a hand, he usually hangs out at the Tumbleweed saloon where he tells stories about his adventures or just talks about his daily life in general. He is the caretaker of Cītlalli.

Cam is rather laid-back, and his smug expression has made others suspicious of his true personality and believing that he isn't a deputy who's entirely committed to his job, which eventually led to the spread of multiple rumors regarding his alleged incompetence. These rumors have led to Mayor Bulloney's many attempts in bribing him into joining his alliance, with one of the attempts involving a promotion for Cam from deputy to sheriff when the rank of sheriff became vacant in the town (as Sheriff Terrorbull was soon forced to take up his new job as the sheriff of Lonesome Gulch). However, Cam always declines the mayor's offers due to various made-up excuses, such as "having to peck at wood" or "having to help yet another damsel in distress". Said rumors have also led to outlaws believing that he is an easy cowboy to defeat, to which, in most cases, Cam proves them wrong. Cam is one of the only citizens in Cowtown who is aware of the mayor's dastardly plans (but refuses to say anything about it), but he still has no idea as to who the Masked Bull actually is.

Cam is actually a quick and agile fighter who is extremely committed to protecting the town against outlaws. He never gives up during a fight, and he is very unwilling to accept his defeat (that is, if he ever is defeated). Due to his stubbornness, it is also hard for him to change his mind. He isn't that popular among most civilians due to the rumors, though he is always welcomed into the Tumbleweed saloon with open arms, as most of the animals who hang out there know who he truly is. He works alone at most times due to his personality and cautiousness, but occasionally helps other cowboys whenever they are in need of extra assistance.

Cam is very energetic and can be often seen running in the mesa whenever he is feeling extremely happy. He may be an adult, but he is still a child at heart at times. He is fickle and playful, and may pretend to peck at others that he likes (he only does this to others that he fully trusts) for fun. When he is angry, he can get really feisty and will only shut himself down after a full outburst, though this rarely happens unless someone teases him or doesn't give him decent respect. He laughs awkwardly (his laughs sound like a toy trumpet) whenever he feels insecure or embarrassed, which may or may not worsen the situation that he had put himself in.

Cam hates how members of his species were looked down upon by many, so he swore to see everyone - even most outlaws - as his equals. He does become annoyed whenever he is tasked by others to deal with bird outlaws from time to time due to him being a bird, but he never expresses it and still manages to capture and arrest them. He shows empathy and sympathy towards some outlaws and talks to them to get to know them while they are in jail, though most of them are reluctant to open up to a law enforcer like him. One of the outlaws that Cam has to deal with the most is Boot Hill Buzzard, who he hated at first due to his stupidity, but his view of him began to change over time as he dealt with him more and more often. Though Cam understands that he is unable to accept kindness as a whole due to his current situation, he was the one that made Cam realize that not all outlaws were evil in the first place.

Cam does not follow the Code of the West (C.O.W.). However, he has his own set of slightly stricter rules that he urges himself to follow, such as removing his hat whenever he enters a building and only wearing it whenever he is on duty. This is also why he rarely starts fights and arrests outlaws only if there is evidence that they have committed any criminal acts.

• Chilling out
• The occasional small talk
• Minding his own business
• Showing off
• Being appreciated

• Boot Hill Buzzard (Absolutely despises him.)
• All those false rumors about him
• Being reminded of who he really is
• Starting fights (unless he has to)
• Going into hiding

CHAPTER 1: IRMA'S ESCAPE
In Cam's time, ivory-billed woodpeckers had always been misunderstood as they were an extreme minority that only resided in Carya Woods. They were seen as bad omens as they were notorious for being sly and cunning creatures, and they have been involved in many persecution attempts by many other species over the years. Most of them died in an intentional arson attempt in Carya Woods. The entire forest burnt down within one night, with less than 10 individuals fleeing in time before it was too late. Irma Ivory-bill was one of them. Leaving almost everything behind her, she (as a teenager) set off on a journey to find herself a partner to start a family with, still holding out onto the fact that some other ivory-bills may still exist in this world. She traveled for miles and miles until she was tired and weary. As she was about to collapse in the middle of a desert, a fellow ivory-bill, Connel Collingwood (disguised as a pileated woodpecker) spotted her and took her to Vitis Town, where he was residing in. He managed to convince others that she was a pileated woodpecker as well (as luckily, almost no one in Vitis Town actually had an idea of what an ivory-bill looked like - all they knew were the rumors about them, but Connel still chose to disguise himself as he always had to leave the town to do odd jobs), and all of them believed this... well, almost all of them. The mayor of the town, a grumpy-looking red-headed woodpecker, suspected that something was off with Irma, but unless he could find proof, he knew that he wasn't allowed to judge any newcomers that came to his town. Connel and Irma began to know each other, and soon enough, they started to love each other and secretly got married. It was then that he decided to finally reveal the fact that he was also an ivory-bill to Irma. Overjoyed, Irma decided to think about plans on starting a family to keep the legacy of the ivory-bill going, though she knew that they were hated on by many.

CHAPTER 2: BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
Cam was born to Connel and Irma in Vitis Town on an unusually cold night. After his parents attempted to get him out of his egg as he had struggled for a long time to do so, they found out that his heart had stopped beating and were about to give up hope on him until they attempted to resuscitate him, which proved to be successful as the baby stirred and blinked his eyes open. As a baby, he was weak and scrawny... and, like most altricial baby birds, he was rather ugly as well, but in his parents' eyes, he was the cutest baby that they had ever seen. Young and unexperienced, his parents had a lot of trouble taking care of him - he cried a lot even when he had received proper care and treatment from them, and he had to be changed many times a day. They didn't mind much about all that, however, as he was still their precious little infant, and they would do anything to make sure he lived a happy life in the future. However, the mayor of Vitis Town soon knew about baby Cam, and his suspicion grew even more when an actual pileated woodpecker came to the town, who immediately identified Irma and her baby as ivory-bills. Chaos ensued in the once peaceful Vitis Town as the ivory-bill haters knew about Irma's true identity. Connel and Irma's house was constantly raided, and they were spat on and received death threats whenever they went out. Eventually, to stop the chaos without spending as much money as possible, the mayor decided to evict the family out of the town.

The family eventually moved to Nolia Town, a small town with a population of around 20-25 animals. All of the residents were friendly towards the newcomers and never saw them as bad omens, leaving them small gifts as part of their warm welcome. The family had since settled down in the small town, and Cam grew up to be a healthy youngster with a desire to learn more about the world. There was no school in Nolia Town, so his father had to teach him everything that he personally knew, from life experiences to basic arithmetic, hoping that he would be more successful than him in the future.

Young Cam would frequently visit the local store to hang out with the other locals. he was "quite a spunky lad", according to many elders, who he enjoyed helping all the time, and even the owner of the store, Renata Wren (a Carolina wren), would listen to him whenever she could and allowed Cam to work at her store whenever he wanted something to do.

CHAPTER 3: TEENAGE YEARS
Things quickly changed when Cam had received news that his father, Connel, had been severely injured when he was accidentally shot by a stray bullet from a gunfight that happened nearby. He was soon discovered to have bled out due to his injuries. Devastated, Cam left the house in an attempt to find himself a job that will keep him and his mother alive, despite his mother constantly telling him not to due to the discrimination that he was about to face. Cam still went out anyway, as he personally thought that no one would even think that ivory-bills exist anymore, so he could just get away with becoming what he was. When he finally found a job and came back after a few months, he was even more devastated to hear that Irma had died due to a sudden stroke. Since then, he had temporarily left his entire past and hometown behind.

As a teenager, Cam wandered around the desert, having lost all motivation to do anything productive at this point. He wore a mask and a hat that covered his crest, traveling from town to town on foot in hopes of getting some free cash by begging, which was always wasted after a few days due to gambling. He had lost all hope in his life until some gangsters, seeing that he had potential, asked him if he would like to join them. At first, Cam declined, but after they managed to convince him with a decent sum of money, he joined the gang and soon began to rob others under a new alias - the Crimson Arrow (due to his strategy of dashing towards his potential enemies whenever they pick on him for a fight).

CHAPTER 4: ARRIVAL
Three years later, the leader of the gang, who used to be a lanky crested caracara (who Cam saw as one of his mentors), was replaced by a burly black bull who hated Cam for no reason. He would treat Cam with disrespect, forcing him to do all the work and never gave him his fair share of loot. Tired of all of this, he left the gang and decided that maybe this was life's way of telling him that this was all a bad idea and he still had time to turn over a new leaf. So, that was what he did. He boarded a train and traveled westward, hoping that no one there would know about who he was when he was part of that gang. As he walked out of the train, he tripped and fell on his head.

Miraculously, Cam suffered from no physical injuries, but he did forget about many parts of his past, such as most of his childhood and his gangster days, and even forgot why he even traveled westward in the first place. A fellow cow from nearby Cowtown brought him over to the town, as he looked rather fatigued and that cow thought that he might need a bit of a rest. He was introduced to many other cowboys (but mainly this group known simply as the C.O.W.-Boys), and although he was shocked to hear from the some of the locals that the crime rate at Cowtown is pretty high, Cam decided that, since he had no idea who he was then, this was the perfect time to show others who he was. Inspired by the C.O.W.-Boys, he trained himself daily to become a great cowboy. He trained himself daily in hopes of being speedy when it comes to dodging during combat. He learnt how to use a lasso, and soon, he climbed up the ranks and became a deputy of Cowtown. Many people don't trust him with that badge, though, as no deputy in Cowtown had ever been a bird, and things did get even worse when they started to realize what species of bird Cam was. That was when the rumors about him all started, and besides his supporters, not many animals showed sympathy towards him, thinking that he was just another "corrupt cowboy". Things got even worse when the gang that he formerly belonged in came by the town and recognized who he was, which led to an argument and almost led to another gunfight happening. Cam temporarily disappeared from the town after that. Pretty soon, however, when a major incident caused Cowtown to be in peril, Cam came back and successfully proved himself worthy to keep his rank as deputy of Cowtown.

Cam was more welcomed in the town since the incident, but he still chose to be a part-time deputy due to how he wishes to go back to Nolia Town to know more about his past. Whenever he discovers more about his past thanks to the locals, he would always share his finding to others that he trusts.

After an encounter with a Guadalupe caracara (mistaken by him as a crested caracara) in a cave, Cam's life changed for the best (in his personal opinion). Surprisingly, he thought that Cītlalli was more trustworthy than most animals that he had met in his life, so he started sharing more about his thoughts to her (even though he is aware that she understands none of it). More information about this can be found on Cītlalli's page.

• The ivory-billed woodpecker is probably extinct in modern day, and its main cause of its possible extinction was deforestation and overhunting. This was also shown indirectly in Cam's lore (Carya Woods being set on fire and his species being persecuted by many).
• Cam's first name is based on Campephilus principalis, the scientific name of the ivory-billed woodpecker. His last name, Collingwood, means "wood of disputed ownership", which not only is a reference to the fact that he is a woodpecker, but is also a reference to how the Singer Tract, one of the known places where ivory-billed woodpeckers were documented, caused a dispute between environmentalists and the Singer Sewing Company as to whether it should be protected or not (to which the Singer Sewing Company "resolved" by buying the tract itself because they're rich mfs).
• Cam's awkward laugh sounds exactly like this audio.
• Cam is the third (or fourth) ivory-billed woodpecker related OC and the first fully anthro animal OC that I have ever created.
• Cam is very loosely based on Deputy Peck from Sheriff Callie's Wild West.
• Carya Woods, Vitis Town and Nolia Town are all named after the genera of some plants that the ivory-billed woodpecker was documented to have fed on (Carya being the genus that the hickory/pecan is in, Vitis being the genus that the wild grape is in, and Nolia being derived from Magnolia, the genus that the southern magnolia is in).
• Cam is unable to be hypnotized by others due to his stubbornness. There has been a documented case in which the Great Bovini had failed to hypnotize Cam prior to his defeat.

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CĪtlalli caracara

Cam's best friend. She sees Cam as nothing else other than a decent being who cares for her more than anyone else and accepts her for who she is even though she may be quite troublesome and annoying to many.

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NAME

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Malesuada fames ac turpis egestas maecenas pharetra. Ipsum consequat nisl vel pretium. Sagittis orci a scelerisque purus semper eget duis at. Id aliquet lectus proin nibh nisl condimentum id.