Changewing

"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight."

- Hiccup reading from Book of Dragons. The Changewing is a Mystery Class dragon that has large wings on its back, horns on its face and an antennae-like appendage on top of each of its eyes. This gives the Changewing an unique appearance. This dragon appeared in "Gem of a Different Color". It also had a cameo in the film, along with a section in Book of Dragons.

There is a rare breed of Changewings that appears during spring called Melting Wing.

Changewing
"This Mystery Class elusive expert in camouflage can shoot hot corrosive acid that can burn through wood and rock (and Vikings!)

Changewing
Changewings are usually found red. They have teeth protruding out their lip from their lower jaw and yellow eyes. They possess These horns are blue, together with a small pointy ledge on the top of its snout.

A row of sharp, blue spines run down their neck to their tail. Their wings are red with blue edges.

Behaviors
Changewings nests in large, tall forests in packs. They group together for common goals, or in other words, they are team players, and will stop at almost nothing to remain in possession of their eggs. Also, Changewings are very curious creatures, and like to mimic everything that they see.

A Changewing's egg has gem-like qualities and are green in base, but its aura glows in multiple colors. Some Vikings will mistake these for "Stones of Good Fortune".

Changewings are known to be very cooperative and work together to accomplish their goals. Multiple Changewings help one another acquire one of their eggs, and do not rest or leave until all of their eggs have been found.

The way a Changewing pack works, is very much like how a Lion pride works. The females do most of the hunting and fighting, as well as defending their territory. Males have not been seen in the series yet.

How to Train Your Dragon (film)\How to Train Your Dragon
It made a cameo appearance in the film when Hiccup was looking through the Book of Dragons.

In the Book of Dragons
In the Book of Dragons special, they are listed as one of the Mystery Class dragons, and it is confirmed that not only can Changewings spit acid, but change colors and hypnotize as well. It is also shown that Changewings are very curious dragons. They are seen in a 2D animation where one burns Bork the Bold while he is making a campfire. The Mystery Class symbol resembles one.

Dragons: Riders/Defenders of Berk
The Changewings were found on a island. Fishlegs, on his own "secret" island, finds a strange glowing gem while with his beloved dragon, Meatlug. Taking it back to Berk, Gobber identifies it as a "Stone of Good Fortune, (as Gobber gets "Stones of Good Fortune" and Changewing dragon eggs mixed up) causing the citizens to swarm Fishlegs, offering him valuable trades. Overwhelmed, Fishlegs, after refusing to give it to Snotlout, asks Hiccup to help him return it, so that Fishlegs can forget all about it.

They, excluding Snotlout, who is secretly trailing, take it to the island, where they find many of them, and Hiccup realizes that they are truly dragon eggs. Fishlegs returns it, realizing that it must've fallen from its nest and that he had seperated it from its mother. When they attempt to leave, the Changewings trail them, invisible, trying to attack them using their acid. They escape, but Snotlout enters undetected and steals many of the eggs. The next day, Snotlout auctions them off, and the gang tries to convince him something terrible will happen if the eggs remain here. He ignores them and declares a "No returns" policy. The Changewings gradually show up, getting their eggs back, but destroying the village in the process. Stoick and Gobber try to fend them off, but realize that it would be impossible to attack things they can't see.

Hiccup and the gang scramble to return the eggs, and they end up with giving them all back, but the Changewings don't leave. Fishlegs realizes Snotlout has kept one and confronts him, displaying anger and strength that scares Snotlout into giving it back. Fishlegs then nervously tries to find them, and the Changewings surround Fishlegs and reclaim their egg from him. Afterwards they roar and terrify the unfortunate Viking but leave him completely unharmed. Hiccup later claimed they would need to find one so they could train it, possibly infering they will later appear again.

A Wild Changewing was found where it hid an entrance to Bork's cave and "held Snotlout hostage" until Hiccup freed him. The Outcasts had one kept in a cage on their island. The outcast then used a herd of wild changewings during a fight with Stoick's and Hiccup's dragon riders to distract them.

In Free Scauldy, while searching for the Screaming Death, Hiccup, Fishlegs and the twins discovered a Scauldron that had been washed ashore on Changewing Island and been trapped by one wing under a pile of rocks. Despite the threat posed by the Changewings, their dragons refused to leave the Scauldron to die of dehydration, forcing Ruffnut to tame the dragon - which she named Scauldy - so that the others could remove the rocks and fashion a splint for the damaged wing.

Abilities
With two of their well-known abilities, Changewings are possibly one of the most dangerous and effective hunters to Vikings.

They usually hunt like a pack of wolves according to Hiccup, or a pride of lions as most seen to be females. One dragon lead a single victim from its herd, and the rest surrounds it.

The Changewing's most noticeable attribute is the ability to change the color and texture of its scales to match that of their surroundings. They can even make themselves look like other, more ferocious species. The only body part that changewings can't change are their eyes, which they use to hypnotize victims before an attack.

Unlike most other dragons, the Changewing can launch concentrated streams of acid at victims. This acid can burn through most, if not all, materials in seconds.

They have been shown to be very strong, capable of holding young vikings with their claws and tail with no struggle. They are also very smart, as they can work in a team to achieve their goals, like retrieving their eggs from Berk. They've also been shown to call reinforcements from their pack to get rid of trespassers on their island and to defend their territory.

In the 2D animation of Book of Dragons, the Changewing is seen breathing fire. Also, Hiccup stated on his map that the Changewing can shoot blue fire.

They acrobatic and speed is shown to be great. As they shown to be able to prehensile tail to grip also being a flexible body. They even shown to have good reflex to doge some attacks in time.

They even great climbers that can climb on any type of surface.

See Fire Types.

Weakness
The Changewing's skin is vulnerable to attack, as it is softer due to its color-changing properties. Won't be able to hide if their nothing in their area such as the sky.

In the rare times when Changewings get scared, they can't control their color changes, making them visible.

Titan Wing
Source: Dragons: Rise of Berk.

Titan winged Changewings look relatively similar to that of a regular adult one. However, the edges of their wings become sharper and their colour turns. They are dark green and their wings have a red edges and splotches of black. The blue spines turn red and the blue horns at the side of their head turn green.

Appearances

 * How to Train Your Dragon (film) (Mentioned)
 * Book of Dragons (Mentioned)
 * Gem of a Different Color (First appearance)
 * We Are Family Part I (Wild Changewing)
 * We Are Family Part II (Outcast Changewing)
 * Live and Let Fly (Pack of wild Changewings and Outcast Changewings)
 * Free Scauldy (Pack of wild Changewings)

Known Changewings

 * Changewing that Bork met (see Book of Dragons)
 * Group of Changewings
 * Wild Changewing
 * Outcast Changewing
 * Wild Skies Changewing
 * Three wild Changewings and three Outcast Changewings
 * Group of Changewings

Trivia

 * The Changewing is one of the mystery dragons in Wild Skies along with the Smothering Smokebreath.
 * Strangely, according to Book of Dragons, the Changewing breathes acid instead of fire while the special shows one burning Bork the Bold. It could be that their fire is greatly reduced compared to other dragons.
 * It is shown that the Book of Dragons doesn't contain a picture of the Changewing, but in the movie, there was a picture of the Changewing in the same book.
 * The Changewing's facial appearance is similar to that of the Diplocaulus, an extinct, prehistoric amphibian from the Permian period.
 * The Changewing appears to be similar in size with the Monstrous Nightmare.
 * In the end of the episode of Gem of a Different Color, it was hinted that the Changewing could possibly be trained in the later seasons.
 * The Changewing's ability to mimic its surrounding in the episode of Gem of a Different Color is different from what's shown in Book of Dragons. Its color mimicry in Gem of a Different Colour is fixed on every part of its body while in Book of Dragons, Changewings mimic different colors for different parts of its body, even if it's not in contact with Changewings body making it truly invisible with a little distortion.
 * Changewings are red in the animation, but in the Book of Dragons, the one was a greenish-blue. The Book of Dragons on the Cartoon Network website has an icon of a green Changewing. This could mean that female Changewings are red and males are green. Or it could be a production goof. Or it could simply be that Changewings can be either red or green.
 * In Rise of Berk, the babies are green and turn red when they are aging.
 * In Rise of Berk, when turn into Titan Changewing they are mix of green and red.
 * Changewings are similar to RainWings from the Wings of Fire book series. Both can change color, have "Wing" in their name, and spit acid.
 * A Changewing's ability to hypnotize is most likely based on the books, where dragons have a hypnotic gaze.
 * While Changewings in the animated short, Book of Dragons, camouflage themselves in a chameleon-like way by changing color, in Riders of Berk they disappear completely. In Wild Skies they disappear almost completely, however a faint outline of the dragon is still visible.
 * Changewings are also very caring, as seen when one was playing with Snotlout.
 * In Book of Dragons, it was said that Changewings display mimicking behavior and love to copy whatever they see. These dragons never show this behavior in the TV Series, most likely because they were defending their territories when the riders encountered them.
 * The Changewing is the first dragon species that can change its colour.
 * Changewings were the first dragons to try make every Viking on Berk abandon their homes.
 * In the comic, The Legend of Ragnarok, they use a trained Changewing to hypnotize the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus.