Jubitus Birds is a client-only Minecraft mod for 1.12.2 ONLY that adds birds flying across the sky for extra immersion. No server install is required

NOW IN 3D

Name: Jubitus birds
Author: Jubitus

WOW !

You're totally free to add it to your modpack.

Features

Ambient flying birds rendered in the sky (currently includes multiple species).
Different flight behaviors per species (circling, gliding, flock-like movement, etc.).
Highly configurable in the Forge mod options menu (spawn rules, limits, behavior tuning, sound).
Spatialized sounds : birds emit positional sounds designed for immersion.
In-game editor (GUI) : tweak species in real time (flight, scale, volume, intervals, day/night behavior, etc.).
Create your own species without coding : behaviors, textures, and sounds are file-based and reloadable.

Species available

Common Swift :

Common Swift

Eurasian Griffon :

Eurasian Griffon

Golden Eagle :

Golden Eagle

Northern harrier :

Northern harrier

Swallow :

Swallow

Little GIF :

Swallow (gif)

Yeah, textures are not perfect/consistent, but since we see them from far it's not a big problem in my opinion.

Feel free to make your own specie or edit existing ones, it's simple :

Mod details

Command

/jubitusbirdsreload Reloads all species from the config folder (properties, textures, sounds).

Custom species

The best part of this mod is that you can easily create a specie !

Species content is stored in:

/config/jubitusbirds/species/<specieName>/

Minimum layout:

<specieName>
├── properties.json
├── sounds_flock
│   └── <fileName>.ogg   (must be MONO Vorbis OGG)
├── sounds_single
│   └── <fileName>.ogg   (must be MONO Vorbis OGG)
└── textures
    └── <fileName>.png   (any size)

Do not hesitate to share your species :D I may add it to the mod if you want.

Notes:

Sounds are optional — a species can be valid without any sound files.
Filenames don’t matter: the mod picks random textures/sounds from the folders, it just has to be the good format (png, vorbis ogg).
Species are still work-in-progress so you will probably notice inconsistences in spawns or biomes where they spawn

Spawning control and biome targeting

Spawning can be tuned in the mod options menu (or json). You can restrict species to certain biomes using biome lists or biome characteristics such as:

Temperature category

OCEAN 
MEDIUM 
WARM

Biome dictionary tags (whitelist/blacklist)

BEACH
COLD
CONIFEROUS
DEAD
DENSE
DRY
END
FOREST
HILLS
HOT
JUNGLE
LUSH
MAGICAL
MESA
MOUNTAIN
MUSHROOM
NETHER
OCEAN
PLAINS
RARE
RIVER
SANDY
SAVANNA
SNOWY
SPARSE
SPOOKY
STEEP
SWAMP
VOID
WASTELAND
WATER
WET
WYVERN_LAIR

If you want an easy way to list biomes and tags, TellMe mod can dump biome data for reference (/tellme dump biomes).

Troubleshooting / balancing

If bird sounds feel too quiet or too loud depending on your setup, adjust:

Main options menu > sound > masterBirdVolume
Main options menu > sound > masterBirdClamp

If birds spawn too often:

Main options menu > spawning > masterBirdClamp > spawnTimeWindowTicks

If too many birds are visible at once:

Main options menu > borders > maxBirdsAroundPlayer

Testing notes (1.0.3)

Sound occlusion is an area to test: sounds should attenuate when underground or when obstacles block the line of sight, with attenuation depending on thickness.
Sound levels may vary in heavily modded environments (for example, some audio mods like Sound Physics Remixin may affect perceived volume). If needed, use the master volume/clamp settings above.

Mods recommended by me that marry good with this mod

Sound Physics Remixin
Dynamic Surroundings (biome sounds disabled)
Weather2Remaster

You can create your own specie packs. If you want me to integrate your pack to my mod, ask on discord or make a GitHub issue.

I'm available at :

Millénaire Discord (I'm more active here)
CleanroomMC Discord
Coalition 1.12

Do not hesitate to join Millénaire discord, between new user content released for Millénaire, I have another big WIP project that I only share there for the moment but please don't scream it too loud ok ?