Every hundred years, a kite in the Spanish mountains lays a red egg in a gorse bush. From that egg hatches a black and white bird, larger than a chicken, which lives exactly fifty years. When that bird dies, a green worm emerges from its rotting flesh. That worm gradually metamorphoses into a Gallo de la Muerte – a Rooster of Death.
A gallo de la muerte has black plumage and a white comb with blue and reddish spots. Anyone who hears its whining, screaming quiquiriquí is doomed to die the next day.
The only remedy for this death sentence is a particular herb that grows among the mountain apple trees from the start of spring till the month of May. This herb is blue and has black roots. The remedy involves boiling this herb in rosemary water and praying over the concoction before it is imbibed.
References
Candón, M. and Bonnet, E. (1993) A buen entendedor…Anaya & Mario Muchnik, Madrid.
Llano, M. (1998) Obras Completas, t. I. Alianza Editorial, Madrid.
A Book of Creatures 
Death Chicken
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Best chicken
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How does a Kite lay an egg?
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Milvus milvus?
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Oh I thought it was like a string kite not a bird.Well that was silly
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Those things don’t reproduce! … right?
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A kite is also a kind of bird
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You never fail to amaze. This is awesome.
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Thank you so much! It was tricky because all the references I could find were in Spanish…
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Sort of cockatrice + basilisk + nguluka?
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Also, I like the idea of a worm forming a protective cocoon before becoming a beautiful death chicken that seeks doom and destruction. The marvelous cycle of life.
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You’ve got to wonder where those elaborate life histories come from
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I hope you do more Anaye in the future. Cause let’s be honest, they’re the greatest thing to ever be conceived in mythology
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The big ones are done :s
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That’s a shame, wanted to see the traveling stone and stalking bear anaye
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Oh, definitely! They’re just not as cool as giant headless antelope and limbless eye killers.
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“Anyone who hears its whining, screaming quiquiriquí is doomed to die the next day.” How do you know it’s a death rooster and not a regular one?
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Presumably it screams like a dying banshee. So yeah, like regular roosters…
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Hope for the best
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so this guy be lonely his whole life because those who see it dies?
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It’s an abomination, it has no friends!
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saddening tbh
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what’s the name of the herb?
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It is a secret
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