This section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena Walker, the author of the dossiers, has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creature.
“
Species
Ichthyornis piscoquus
Time
Late Cretaceous
Diet
Piscivore
Temperament
Skittish
Wild
Among the most vocal creatures on the Island, Ichthyornis piscoquus actually appears to be a relatively normal seagull. It primarily eats fish, and its distinctive cries can be heard echoing over across the Island's many beaches. As you might expect from a seagull, Ichthyornis will flee at the slightest provocation.
Ichthyornis is a versatile and opportunistic hunter. Its primary form of attack is to dive into the top layers of water and impale its prey. However, since its food source can be unpredictable, Ichthyornis has developed a keen ability to steal food from unsuspecting travelers.
Their affinity for shiny objects leads them to sometimes knock tools and weapons out of the hands of unsuspecting Survivors, but Ichthyornis is too small to actually fly off with them.
Domesticated
Ichthyornis surprised me by being a very loyal and very social creature, once tamed. It likes to ride on its owner's shoulder, and bring that person treats (in the form of fish, of course) which its beak-grip enhances with extra healing vitamins. The personality of Ichthyornis reminds me of a housecat hauling a trophy prey back home, except it brings extra-healthy fish instead.
When left alone, these birds fly in lazy circles around the beaches looking for fish, and pluck them out of the water with precise accuracy when they find one, and are seemingly harmless at first glance. When provoked however, this snatch, grab and eat behavior can quickly become a player’s nightmare.
Unlike what their dossier says, the Ichthyornis acts aggressively toward the player, relentlessly stealing items unprovoked. They do not steal the player's tools, they disarm them and throw it on the ground which they can pick back up. The Ichthyornis does, however, steal the player's food and eat it. The Ichthyornis will attack even if the player has nothing in their inventory. This behavior has made them one of the most hated creatures of ARK, as they can mistakenly target other items, including extremely rare and valuable items, thinking they are food. Worst of all this can include cryopodded tames and fertilized eggs, which will be devoured with no hope of being returned.
Unlike other aggressive creatures however, they will not attack every time. A player can stand directly beneath them for several minutes before being targeted, while other times immediately come under attack, even with the same animal. They are extremely unpredictable.
Appearance
Ichthyornis are a common sight on the coasts of the ARK, and players will often hear their squawking over the pounding surf. They resemble standard modern herons in all aspects, but one. They bare rows of serrated teeth within their beaks - the perfect tools for gripping on to slippery fish.
Color Scheme and Regions
Region 0:Body
Natural colors:
8
21
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
56
62
63
64
77
Region 1:Feet
Natural colors:
8
21
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
56
62
63
64
71
77
100
Region 2:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 3:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 4:Unused
This region does not show on the body.
Region 5:Face
Natural colors:
8
21
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
56
62
63
64
71
77
100
This section displays the Ichthyornis's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Ichthyornis. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Ichthyornis will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.
This information can be used to alter the Ichthyornis's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Ichthyornis's "body" magenta.
Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it's emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding stats with an external tool.[1]
Ichthyornis
The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps
Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.
The Ichthyornis dives and/or pecks the target for 1 damage.
This attacks can grab small creatures with its beak, if that was a fish it will die instantly, if not the Ichthyornis will continue pecking it until death.
This attacks also steals randomly one consumable from targets (Except for Kibble and Cryopod) to then eat it.
There is also a chance that if the target is a Human, the Ichthy can drop their weapon to the floor.
Can be used every 7s by both a rider and the AI.
Passive
Hunt
The Ichthyornis has three special behavior modes that affects the way that it attacks small creatures:
No Hunt: The Ichthyornis will not grab small creatures and will limit itself to attacking them normally.
Hunt: The Ichthyornis will grab small creatures and eat their corpses after death.
Hunt and Retrieve: The Ichthyornis will grab small creatures and bring the corpses back to the player, the corpses of their victims will have a shiny golden glow, that means that corpse will give Raw Prime Fish Meat or Raw Prime Meat depending of the type of corpse.
Taming
For general info about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.
KO Strategy
The best way to knock them out is using a bola and Tranqs, depending on the level. Keep in mind they are weak and it is extremely easy to accidentally kill them; it is not recommended to hit them on the head. If the bola wears off before it is knocked out, follow the ichthyornis and it will usually fly to the ground within a few seconds, indicating it is unconscious. Ichthyornis are often found flying around ponds and oceans, rarely appearing on the ground, which can make knocking it unconscious difficult. They can be "forced" to land by killing off all the fish in it's vicinity, which makes hitting them with a bola much easier. If this doesn’t work, they tend to fly in circles a few times before flying off. If one has enough practice and lead time (and the bird is over land), they can be fairly easy to knock out of the sky.
A more resource intensive method to knock one involves creating a trap using a raft, with three floors high and three double doors to act as a "dinosaur gateway" and with you acting as bait on the doors, you can make it go inside. This is useful for those who are on high latencies and cannot manage to land shots.
Torpidity-depletion: 1.04 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:19:12
Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies!
For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.
This section describes how to fight against the Ichthyornis.
General
As this bird will be one of the first that players encounter, it is important to not attack it unless you are prepared, as they will act as a Pegomastax and steal items from the player, although they won't stop there. Perhaps the easiest way to defend against one is to Bola it when it is sweeping down to steal. From there the player can either tame it or kill it for Hide and Raw Meat. Should the player not have a Bola, then it is best to leave them alone.
NOTE: You do not need to attack it for it to aggro on you.
NOTE: Not only is this bird aggressive, but anything it steals from you vanishes. A pegomastax you can kill to re-obtain your stolen goods. Ichthyornis will devour your stolen items (minus equipped weapons, which are knocked onto the ground), forcing them to disappear into the void. Typically, items on your hotbar are vaporized first ( your "0" slot item as a very first )
If the player has a Pteranodon, then one could spin-attack (C, , , ) to easily get rid of the attacking Ichthyornis.
Strategy
While Bolas can bring this flying thief down due to the bola's fall and the Bird's small size these can prove rather ineffective for this reason it is best to use weapons such as bows and aim ahead of where its circling
Weaponry
Bola, bows and Spears are great for an easy kill. If you want to tame it, though, a low level only needs a couple of hits with tranquilizer arrows.
Dangers
Like a Pegomastax, the Ichthyornis will steal items from the player. it will knock what is currently in your hand out of your hands, so you'll have to pick it back up. This includes your Bolas, Bow, etc. it might even steal items from your hot bar. In addition, all food and seeds that you have found, will be eaten by Ichthyornis.
Weakness
The Ichthyornis typically has very low health, even at higher levels. A simple crossbow with a couple stone arrows will get the job done, low levels can be killed with only one headshot. And it also, when it is going to attack you, it will dive towards you and at that moment is where it is most vulnerable to your Ranged Weaponry.
The Whip can also prove to be effective with its ability to force flyers to land effectively stunning it with more ease compared to the Bola
If wanting to merely protect your valuables it is best to store them on a shoulder mount such as a Compy
Splitting stacks will make this steal steal less as it always steals stacks.
Utility
When told to attack or thrown at a fish, the Ichthyornis will catch, kill, and return carrying its target. Its prey's corpse will have an aura indicating that collecting from the corpse will provide a chance of harvesting Prime Fish Meat, even if it is not normally dropped by the target creature. Additionally, there are several land creatures from which it can enable collection of Prime Meat from including Dodo, Pegomastax, Lystrosaurus, Trilobite, and Compy.
Its ability to make Prime Meat available from very common and easily killed creatures makes the Ichthyornis a valuable asset for collecting food to efficiently tame carnivores.
If set to "Hunt and Retrieve" and Aggressive, an Ichthyornis will automatically "Hunt" valid targets around it, while not attacking anything else (as most other aggressive creatures would). This allows one to simply stroll the beaches with an Ichthyornis set to Follow, and be brought corpses with less micromanagement. Be careful not to lose your Ichthyornis however, as it seems to disable Following once it begins Hunting, automatically and temporarily re-enabling Follow to return a corpse. After the corpse is returned, the original Follow order is NOT re-enabled, making it easy for it to be left behind if a steady supply of targets while in render range, is not maintained.
Important note: On official PvE servers the "flyer carry" option is disabled and for some inexplicable reason the game applies this to Ichthyornis as well. It can catch fish, but not land animals.
Roles
Collector: Set the Ichthyornis to "Hunt and Retrieve" and tell it to attack a fish. It will return with a dead fish that can be harvested for Raw Fish Meat and a chance of Raw Prime Fish Meat. Larger fish means more meat. Similarly, on flyer-carry-enabled servers, the Ichthyornis can target Dodos, Compys, Pegomastax, and Lystrosaurus with "hunt and retrieve", the Ichthyornis will then grab the target and begin attacking it while it's in its beak. If the Ichthyornis kills a target in this manner, it will imbue the corpse with the buff, which can then be harvested for Raw Meat and a chance of Raw Prime Meat. (Level up Health, Damage and Speed)
Taming Assistant: Ichthyornis will potentially get a lot of both prime meats for you in order to use it on cooking or taming, this makes it specially good in early game due to the lack of capacity to kill bigger creatures that drops high quality meat. Also the small fishes corpses that the Ichthyornis gets gives more taming progression to the Hesperornis and Otter than the normal fish corpses. (Level up Health and Speed)
Flying Pegomastax: if set to Hunt it will steal similar to regular pickpoket on Pegomastax and Hunt and retrieve will work like quick pickpoket. Unlike the rather dangerous Pego, the Itchy will be wery weak if set to "no hunt". (Level up Health and Speed)
Backpack: Only half their weight is put on your shoulder, meaning you can carry extra weight. (Level up Weight)
Pet: the Ichthyornis can make a good pet due to the fact that it is a shoulder mount, but the pain of having to get it may be too much.
The line in the dossier: "...and bring that person treats (in the form of fish, of course) which its beak-grip enhances with extra healing vitamins." might be a reference to Prime Fish.
Ichthyornis was originally scheduled for December 2015, but was cut for unknown reasons. It was finally released for PC on March 31, 2017
Despite the dossier saying its Temperament is Skittish, it is actually quite Aggressive. If there are no fish around or if you get too close, it will steal and eat your food. If you have no food items, it will disarm you and simply attack.
Ichthyornis will never get full. It will eventually steal and eat all of your food, no matter how much you are carrying.
For unknown reasons, when a Ichthyornis steals and eats your Narcotics, it will not knock itself out.
If you have a domesticated Jerboa, Pegomastax, Lystrosaurus, or Dodo nearby on land, the Ichthyornis could potentially pick them up and eat them.
Real Ichthyornis was a social animal that lived in flocks, while Ark's Ichthyornis can be seen together they are mostly found alone.
Ichthyornis could have been one of the creatures inhabited the ARK known as Aberration before it got damaged. But when the ARK became damaged some creatures were mutated to survive the harsh environment. Some creatures couldn't adapt, and Ichthyornis may have been one of the creatures that couldn't survive in the changed environment.
Compy corpses aren't affected by gravity and can't be dragged. If an Ichthyornis "Hunts" and kills a Compy, it will force the Ichthy to drop the Compy corpse, which will hover in the air, often making it unharvestable.
Real Ichthyornis were no larger than pigeons or ducks, but in the game they stand nearly as tall as a fully grown adult.
The Ichthyornis is one of the few flying creatures that can have its Movement Speed leveled up. Others include, but are not limited to, the Dimorphodon and Featherlight.
In Genesis: Part 1, the Ichthyornis found in the Ocean biome are, for some reason, passive. Unlike on the other maps, they will not attempt to attack the player or tames unless it itself is attacked first. This trait also applies to ARK's other thief, the Pegomastax.
Their Dive Attack cannot be blocked, regardless they will always steal something.
Unlike other dinos, which will be auto-set to "Attacking target" itchy will be auto-set to "Aggressive"
The only available pose on it's dermis is a dead itchyornis which means that it's annoyance is intended
Before patch 259.0 the Ichthyornis was a easy creature to tame because its good proportion between its base 100 Health and 120 Torpor, but since this patch the wild Ichthyornis reduces its base helath by 50% and gain it once they are tamed, this indirectly made it more difficult to tame it because he had less health for the same amount of torpor. At the moment the safest way to tame it is using a basic Longneck Rifle with Tranquilizer Darts, the players can also try it with Wooden Club, but the risk of death is higher, And not to mention using a Crossbow.
Ironically, despite being intended to be a creature that helps at the beginning of the game, its high risk of death with most of the early-mid game torpor-induce weapons made it not so viable to tame at that stages of the game.
Seems to be a bug related with the Ichthyornis on ARK: Survival Ascended since the release where the Ichthyornis can no longer boosts the fish corpses that it gets hunting, making it impossible to take Raw Prime Fish Meat from them (Tested on version 34.51), common Raw Prime Meat can continue to be obtained as normal from ground creatures.
Yes
No
Region 0:
Region 1:
Region 5:
Ichthyosaurus
Health
Stamina
Oxygen
Food
Weight
Melee Damage
Movement Speed
Torpidity
Raw Prime Fish Meat or 
Raw Prime Meat depending of the type of corpse.
Level 1
Regular Kibble
Raw Prime Fish Meat
Cooked Prime Fish Meat
Raw Fish Meat
Cooked Fish Meat
× 12; 
× 5; 
× 2; 
× 1; 
× 1; 
× 1
Regular Kibble:
1 × 
Cooked Meat Jerky, 1 × 
Medium Egg, 5 × 
Fiber, 2 × 
Longrass, 2 × 
Savoroot, 1 × 
Water
, 
, 
) to easily get rid of the attacking Ichthyornis.
Bolas can bring this flying thief down due to the bola's fall and the Bird's small size these can prove rather ineffective for this reason it is best to use weapons such as bows and aim ahead of where its circling
Whip can also prove to be effective with its ability to force flyers to land effectively stunning it with more ease compared to the 
Compy
Raw Fish Meat and a chance of 
Dodos, 
Pegomastax, and 
Lystrosaurus with "hunt and retrieve", the Ichthyornis will then grab the target and begin attacking it while it's in its beak. If the Ichthyornis kills a target in this manner, it will imbue the corpse with the buff, which can then be harvested for 
Raw Meat and a chance of 
Hesperornis and 
Otter than the normal fish corpses. (Level up Health and Speed)
Raw Prime Meat
Raw Prime Fish Meat
Raw Fish Meat
Raw Meat
Jerboa, 
Dimorphodon and 
Featherlight.
Kibble (Pegomastax Egg).
259.0 the Ichthyornis was a easy creature to tame because its good proportion between its base 100 
Health and 120 
Torpor, but since this patch the wild Ichthyornis reduces its base helath by 50% and gain it once they are tamed, this indirectly made it more difficult to tame it because he had less health for the same amount of torpor. At the moment the safest way to tame it is using a basic 
Longneck Rifle with 
Crossbow.
ARK: Survival Ascended since the release where the Ichthyornis can no longer boosts the fish corpses that it gets hunting, making it impossible to take 
ARK: Survival Evolved Changes
Ichthyornis is added to the game
Cryopods
