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 V, Altaria is one of seven non-legendary Pokémon that can learn Sky Attack naturally, the other non-legendaries being Noctowl, Togekiss, the Pidove evolution line, and Sigilyph.
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 places where an Altaria can be caught in the wild is in the Sky Pillar and on Unova Route 14. 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.
Winona of the Fortree Gym has an Altaria as her main Pokémon, much as in the games. It was briefly seen carrying Winona and Flannery to the Weather Institute after Norman's battle with Ruby, but wasn't seen fighting until VS. Altaria, where it fought Sapphire's Chic and managed to win even after the latter evolved into a Blaziken.
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 easiest Dragon-type Pokémon to level up, needing only 600,000 exp to reach level 100.
Altaria and Steelix are the only dual-type Pokémon that change their primary type during evolution.
Origin
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 is a combination of alto (Italian for high) or altus (Latin for high) and aria (Italian for air). Ária means melody in Portuguese, which may be related to Altaria's singing abilities. It may also refer to the star Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, the Eagle.
Tyltalis may refer to Tyl—also known as Epsilon Draconis—a star in the constellation Draco, the Dragon. It may also be 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 Michiru and チルチル Chiruchiru in the Japanese translation of the play), who are tasked with finding the "blue bird of happiness."