Altaria resembles a large blue phoenix-like Pokémon with a long neck and white cheeks. The feathers of its body make it resemble a cumulus cloud and two long blue feathers extend from the back of its head. It wraps its two cloud-like wings around its body to keep itself warm. Altaria’s blue feet have four toes, three forward and one backward, and it has five tail feathers, the ones to the sides being longer than the inner ones.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Altaria carries a refined set of vocal chords that allow it to sing or hum in a beautiful soprano voice that causes its listeners to experience dreamy content.
As of Generation IV, Altaria is one of three non-legendary Pokémon that can learn Sky Attack naturally, the other non-legendaries being Noctowl and Togekiss.
Behavior
In their secluded habitats, Altaria are known to sing and hum beautifully with their voices. Much of their behavior simply involves finding a draft on which to glide, high above many other Pokémon that can fly. If it bonds with a person, it will gently envelop the friend with its soft wings, then hum.
Altaria seem to live in secluded areas far from human population such as mountainous regions (contrary to Swablu which live near human settlements) and even sometimes melodious singing, believed to be a singing Altaria, can be heard from far off mountains. Another example of its distance from humans is the fact that the only place where an Altaria can be caught in the wild is in the Sky Pillar. Some Altaria are shown to reside in Forina Valley, and many of them are also shown to reside within the Tree of Beginning. Both locations are also far from human population. During the winter, they migrate into caverns within mountains. They use geomagnetic waves to know where to fly.
Another flock of Altaria and Swablu was seen in Pokémon Ranger - Deoxys Crisis! The Altaria's sense of direction had gone haywire, so Solana captured one of them to put them back in order.
Altaria, the Humming Pokémon. Altaria is the evolved form of Swablu. It uses its fluffy wings to catch updrafts and is known for its beautiful high-pitched song.
Altaria dances and wheels through the sky among billowing, cotton-like clouds. By singing melodies in its crystal-clear voice, this Pokémon makes its listeners experience dreamy wonderment.
Altaria sings in a gorgeous soprano. Its wings are like cotton clouds. This Pokémon catches updrafts with its buoyant wings and soars way up into the wild blue yonder.
Altaria is also the only Template:Type2 that is part of a two-stage evolutionary line.
Altaria and Steelix are the only dual-type Pokémon that change their primary type during evolution.
Altaria has the lowest Attack among all fully-evolved Dragon-type Pokémon.
However, it has the highest Special Defense among all fully evolved Dragon-type Pokémon.
Altaria is also tied wth Kingdra for the lowest base HP of all fully-evolved Dragon-type Pokémon.
Altaria is the only Pokémon not part of the Gible evolutionary line that has been seen using Draco Meteor in the anime. (Dialga has only been seen using it in a movie).
Altaria, Vibrava, and Kingdra are the only Dragon-type Pokémon whose pre-evolved forms are not Dragon-type.
Altaria is likely based on Peng, Chinese legendary birds of enormous size, said to travel 3000 li in one flap of their mighty, cloud-like wings. They're often portrayed as having a dragon's head and whiskers.
Name origin
Altaria's name is a combination of the words alto, Spanish and Italian for high, and aria, Italian for air or simply derived from aerial, which both refer to this Pokémon's behavior of singing wonderful melodies. It may also refer to the star Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila.
Tyltalis may refer to Tyl, also known as Epsilon Draconis, a star in the Draco constellation. Tyltalis is likely a reference to the play L'Oiseau Bleu ("The Blue Bird") by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. The story is about two siblings, Mytyl and Tyltyl (ミチル and チルチル in the Japanese translation of the play) who are tasked with finding the "blue bird of happiness."
Chinese (Taiwan): 七夕青鳥 Qī Xì Qīng Niǎo - 七夕 may come from the love story of Qixi, which involves the star of Altair or Vega. May also have something to do with 喜鵲 Xǐquè (magpies, which are also related to the story. The last character 青鳥 literally means "blue bird."
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.