This large avian is colloquially known as the "master of camouflage" because of the hard, spectral shards that cover its body. These scales contain thousands of prisms that capture ambient light and reflect a perfect representation of an uninterrupted atmosphere, effectively rendering the spectrowl invisible at most wavelengths. Because spectrowl shards are so delicate, their system camouflage can easily be damaged or disrupted in the event of a physical injury; when this happens, they have been known to reflect laser-focused beams of light that may temporarily or permanently blind those nearby. In ancient times, spectrowl were thought to be creatures from another dimension and were purposefully injured at large gatherings to produce great spectacles of light.