Since both Cailan and Taizak had carrion birds, I decided to review both at once. Cailan was assigned a brown vulture...
... while Taizak was assigned the blue condor.
I tamed one of these briefly on Taizak, but I didn't give it much of a chance, so rather than asking for a reroll I decided to give ol' cranky Griselda another try. Cailan's vulture, however, was something I'd never tamed before. I forgot to get a good shot of his colors in the darkness, but I did get one or two in the light. He was much more attractive during the day. His brown feathers were lighter and a bit more orange, while his purple feathers were recognizably purple and not just an odd dark band across his wings. His blue eyes were very striking against the rest of him.
I have a general dislike of old world vultures, because their faces are so ridiculous, but I found this one surprisingly attractive. I chose the Young Fleshripper from Westfall because I decided that for what little time I intended to keep him, he would be the product of Trachela's time spent in the stable with a handsome young Bonestripper Buzzard and in need of a few last hours of maternal care before he sets off into the world. Why not?
Griselda's colors also changed according to the lighting, and, like with the brown vulture, I vastly preferred her in brighter settings. When I got a shot of her in the Dalaran stables, she was a very drab grey:
But when she was targeted or brought out into the light, she brightened up significantly.
I loved the shading on her wings, very detailed, and her face tickled me because she just looked so puffy and grumpy, but the longer I looked at her, the less I liked her model. Because of the black feathers at the base and the strong backward curve, her wings looked like they attached at her middle and not at her shoulder, which made her body look less like a bird's and more like a worm's. Still, I was determined to give her a try, so off we went to Sholazar Basin to bond over the ruthless slaughter of gorillas, mammoths, etc.
Meanwhile, back with Cailan and the hatchling...
I didn't like his swimming animation at all. The end of every flap had his wings moving all the way back so that the tips of them were touching, which is not at all a natural-looking motion for a bird, and the start of each flap moved his wings ahead so I could see that they're apparently attached by about an inch of flesh. Not a pleasant affair. Griselda's animation was exactly the same as her flying animation, so no need for a shot of that.
It was around this time that I got tired of taking screenshots and decided to just go ahead with it, so onto the fighting! They both did fair damage, nothing to write home about, but not bad. Again, Griselda came out on top, for her quick, smooth battle animations, where the hatchling fell behind due to his falling back into the same hovering position every time he landed a hit. I didn't do any randoms with either of them, mostly because I still don't trust myself with focus, but I got Griselda a couple levels... sadly, the poor hatchling didn't even get one. Despite being pleasantly surprised by his look, I found that overall, he just didn't agree with me. We parted ways in Hellfire Peninsula, where I'm sure he'll live a happy life scavenging corpses and whatnot.
Having released the hatchling into the wild, I returned to Taizak and Griselda, intending to take on a high-level elite... specifically, the exiled giant in Storm Peaks. I didn't expect to do very well, since Griselda was not yet max level, but I was perfectly happy to die trying. And the result?
Victory! She wasn't very good at holding aggro off of me, but as long as I kept Mend Pet up and didn't do TOO much damage, she made a fairly decent tank. Not too shabby! Overall, I was much more impressed with Griselda than the hatchling. In looks and in animation, she was vastly superior, and I might even keep her a while longer to see how she clicks. Thanks for making me give her another shot, Acherontia!

For now, at least, I have a new addition to my stables.