After watching the second movie I noticed that although Lugia is supposed to be a bird, it's only referred to as the 'Beast of the Sea', and the only true bird-like characterstic are the wings. Otherwise, it has a long tail, long neck and fang-like teeth, displayed on dragons. It also bears somewhat of a resemblance to Latias/Latios, which are also dragons.
So what do you think? Do you think Lugia closer to a bird, or a dragon?

I voted for both. Maybe it's a combination of a bird and a dragon. xDD

I think it is mostly a dragon, but is bird like in its wings

I would say Dragon. The wings, though birds have wings, have what appears to be hands. Making it more dragon like than a bird. I think all the other bird pokemon have wings, like any normal bird.
I say that Lugia looks completely like a dragon. He [or it rather.] has the long neck, teeth, long tail with the spikes and claws [like most dragons have] some dragons arms also serve to be wings as well. Also being called "beast of the sea" that makes me think of a dragon [or some other beastie] not a fluffy bird [[[I have like 28 birds at home XD]]]

that is what I think anyway XD

Dragon. Looks more like one than a bird.

Dragon. Lugia has almost all the characteristics of one, plus even his wings resemble more of 'hands' than feathers (as stated before me).

A wyvern.

A dragon with legs and wings in place of arms, like a bird.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyvern

(Voted for both.)

Wyvern.

I almost said bird, ut it lacks the basic characteristics of one - feathers, a beak, the feet, and so on. It might have the basic design of one, but consider this: chimpanzees have the 'basic design' of humans. That doesn't make them humans...in fact, as much as I love animals, it kinda freaks me out.

Maybe birds are freaked out by Lugia.

It is neither a bird, nor a dragon.

Although I'm a bit rusty, it's water/flying type, right?
It's a common misinterpretation that flying = bird
Flying just means that, well, they're capable of flight.

You may say that it has a long tail and neck like dragons, but dragons also tend to be scaly, have forked-toungues and breathe fire, as well as having bat-like wings. (Also, I don't see how having what appear to be fingers at the end of its wings make it more like a dragon. If anything, it gives it arms rather than wings, which kinda screws everything up.)

Wow what a narrow definition of what constitutes a dragon.

I don't know what Lugia is, it could pretty easily fall into "prehistoric bird" or dragon, or bird, or both, or none I guess.

I guess prehistoric bird just adds another count to dragon though, since most "dragons" in the real world were fossils thought to be the bones of dragons back in the times of old.

Bulbapedia has this to say:
"Lugia is based on Ryūjin, a dragon who was the Shinto god of the sea, and lived on the ocean's floor. "

I used to identified Lugia as a bird, because Ho-oh is a bird, and Legends from the same gen (well, way back then) were all similar - the previous Bird trio, Mewtwo and Mew, the Dog? trio. It made sense for Lugia to be a bird, just as Ho-oh. I never thought of the wings as hands, though - the feathers just seemed to be thicker, more stylized as a whole. The whole underwater-dwelling thing screwed up the bird ideal, though.

I refuse to call it a dragon, though. Dragons, to me, have four legs/arms + 2 wings, 6 limbs total. If its front limbs are also its wings (i.e. 4 in total), it's a wyvern to me. Lugia isn't enough of a dragon, but it might, at a stretch, be a wyvern.

I say bird since it's counter part (Ho-oh) is a bird

I think it looks more like a dragon. I just don't think it looks enough like a bird.

The fact remains that Lugia is based off of a dragon that was the god of the seas.
Other than the fact Lugia lacks scales [not counting the ones on it's back], I'd say it's more of a dragon/dinosaur type of Pokemon then anything.

seems to be a bird to me xP

It was probably just made to be psychic/flying to counter Ho-oh's fire/flying type(even though there's no type advantage over either)

It being of the psychic type supports it's ability to talk through telepathy, the flying part, probably because of the wings(or hands XD)
Maybe they didn't want a dragon-type legendary just yet. If they had planned ahead the third or fourth generations, it might have made sense...

I support lugia as a dragon, though. Always will.

I say lugia is more of a dragon. The wings don't even really look like a bird's, but more like hands with thumb and fingers, although it doesn't use its wings for grabbong things like hands.

Huh. I've never thought of Lugia as a bird. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what animal I thought of it as. lol But looking at it now, I say it's a furry wyvern. Eastern dragons have fur, so it doesn't seem too strange. It has a barbed tail like a wyvern, as well as 'fingers' on it's wings. lol So I voted for dragon.

It looks more like a dragon to me however there are bird like features present on it. I'd say that it is both.

I'm gonna say it's a bird-like dragon.

Despite it being one of my favourite Pokemon I've never really questioned its appearance. In my mind Lugia's always been a bird. Although the dragon arguments are extremely persuasive (and I agree!) I can't think of it as anything else.

When Silver came out everyone I knew referred to Lugia as a "legendary bird", so let's call it childhood mental conditioning and leave it at that.

this is argued a lot but most off the time its put as a phionex but may be argued still a bird/dragon at the end as a phionex is a bird off fire but most off the time ho-oh and lugia are put as the legendary phionex's as th birds and beasts have already been taken by the the two first trios but may be put as the bigger trio off johto including celebii into it but i just call lugia a phionex

It could be both, but seeing how it does not have a beak, or bird-legs like the legendary birds trio, I think it is closer to a dragon.

If a Lugia was real it would be really weird if it looked something like a seagull or a parrot, however I voted for both bird and dragon; it looks like a combination of both anyways.

I voted both, since it holds both bird and dragon characteristics. I figured that it was somewhat like Altaria, which is clearly a bird, even though it is classified as a Dragon type. Just like methuselahalchemist said, it is most likely a variation of a Wyvern.

I think lugia looks more like a dragon if you ask me.

Hmm. I've never heard about Lugia being called a 'bird' (not that I don't doubt what you know...) But anyways, if you asked me, I would say totally a dragon. >_>

Surprised to see so many Dragon votes... I went for bird, personally. Like Ho-oh, I think they're both just giant birds, like Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Rayquazza is a dragon.

Its more bird-like to me.

I see Lugia as more of a dragon than a bird. Though it definitely has qualities of both. It reminds me of Haku in his dragon form in Spirited Away. He had a somewhat furry appearance in some places and his face looked more mammalian than reptilian. So dragons can take many different forms than just being a big, scaly, flying lizard.

Lol, I'm surprised this thread has lasted as long as it has, but anyways:


True, but then again, Amphitheres have feathered body and wings (and a lack of arms and wings), and Lindworms and Drakes tend to lack wings. It's mainly the fact that Lugia has teeth but no beak, no visible feathers and 'spike-like' appendages on its tail make me think less of it as a bird.


Again, Dragons come in many different shapes as I mentioned above. And also Wyverns are a type of dragon.

I for one say Lugia is a dragon,but Lugia is in fact a flying,psychic type.So its hard to say but it is much closer to
a dragon than any old bird pokemon.

For some reason, he's always seemed to me like a Dragon-Penguin mix, probably because of the movie.

So... I think he's both. It's not really the first time they've Mixed-and-Matched Animals.

He is clearly bragird.

If I had to put it in otherworldly categories, I'd put it with the Wyvern.

Birds cant swim, some dragons, on the other hand, can swim. Lugia looks more like a Dragon.
I voted for Dragon. "Wyvern" isn't mentioned, it has always been Dragon/Bird

I've personally always seen it as a giant bird, but I can see where the dragon arguments are coming from.





Technically, Lugia, as a psychic type, doesn't have to swim. It likely uses it's psychic abilities to survive and 'fly' through the water, similar to Celebi and Mew.

Yes, but he is the Guardian of the sea...even if he wasn't psychic he would still swim. :P
"The guardian of the sea" thing would be poitless if he couldn't.

It would but that has no relevance to this. The fact that he is a psychic type remains, and proves he has no need to swim, thus making the swimming argument null and void. The thing is, he wouldn't be able to live underwater if not for his psychic power. If Nintendo was actually gonna have him swim they would have made him a water type2 instead of psychic.

I'm more inclined to call Lugia a Dragon rather than a Bird.

Yeah.
I think Lugia is more dragon than bird.
Birds have feathers. I dont see any on Lugia :S

Lugia's more like a dragon than a bird

Guys, Lugia has feathers--the Silver Wing is a feather that dropped off of its body. It's just very sleek, like any oceangoing bird; remember how penguin feathers look? Exactly.

That aside, I'd say it's a feathered, beaked (creatures with mouths like that tend to have beaks, and more primitive beaked dinosaurs had teeth as well) dragonthing.

...Holy crap, it's a ~*~Dragonbird~*~ meaning that you could call it a legendary bird and still be right.

Now give me my "both" poll option. >C

How about something like this?

Lugia is said to be based on the Japanese Ryujin, meaning "Dragon God". The Ryujin was the Shinto god of the sea, and lived on the ocean's floor. So this, I believe is the origin of Lugia's concept. In short: it is a dragon, not a bird. Or at the very least, some kind of wyvern?

Dragon, all good legendaries are dragons.

After looking at this illustration, it could arguably be both...

I always see Lugia as some sort of mixture of both, but more dragon than bird.

It's typing states bird to it, but it looks more like a Dragon.