Althoughdeceptively beautiful in appearance and melody, the Death Song has a lethal quality that is reminiscent of the Black Widow. Inhabiting a lush island beyond the archipelago, the dragon vocalizes its beautiful and hypnotic siren call in order to lure other dragons, which it then targets as prey. Rather than using fire to attack, the Death Song spits out a liquid substance that traps and preserves victims as it hardens into a stiff amber cocoon that is penetrable only by flame. Typically, the Death Song chooses to entrap dragons only, but it also preys upon any human unfortunate enough to make its way to its island. Its key weaknesses are Thunderdrums, which find themselves mostly immune to the Death Song's lethal lullaby due to their poor hearing, and small enclosed spaces which can render it vulnerable to its own song.
The eggs of Death Songs in Dragons: Rise of Berk are flamboyant oval-shaped eggs. They have a colorful purple core and a translucent white covering over it. They appear to have wavy, curved stripes on it and some spots, similar to some butterfly wings on the outer covering. Those in School of Dragons, however, are grey with wavy yellow stripes and spots. In Tone Death, the Death Song egg the Riders find looks like none of these, instead it resembles a Whispering Death egg.
The Death Song has a long, slender body. Its wings resemble that of a Thunderdrum. It has a tail that is very reminiscent of a Monstrous Nightmare. Its body resembles that of a Timberjack, as it is very thin. The Death Song has the striking and bright colors of blue, yellow, and orange on both its wings and its tail. It has spikes that run along its back.
Death Songs are extremely solitary. This is most likely because of the fact that they will eat any dragon who gets too close to them, including their own kind. Their preferred prey is other dragons, but they aren't adverse to eating any unwary human who strays too close to their nests.
Unlike most dragons, the Death Song will abandon its young not long after hatching. They are often hostile to young of their kind. But some Death Songs are willing to adopt and care for young Death Songs, provided they can sing a song they like.
The Death Song uses a siren-like song to lure its prey to a remote island. The secret behind this amazing feat is the Death Song's extra cervical vertebrate. When the Death Song calls, its extra vertebrae expands into its frills, and it is able to project its song towards specific targets up to a mile away. Babies also have the ability to mimic sounds and songs, even those of humans.
Death Songs are one of the most adept hunters among dragons, for they use their siren-like song to lure their prey close, then spit amber to trap their prey easily, as the prey is unable to break free.
After striking its prey, the Death Song covers it in an amber-like substance which traps and preserves victims as it hardens into a stiff amber cocoon. This cocoon is remarkably strong, and it is only penetrable by flames. Afterwards, the Death Song returns to finish its prey off. It does this by breaking the prey out of the amber and then eating them. The Death Song also uses its amber to construct its nest, forming a large spherical structure for the dragon to live in.
Death Songs are able to consume medium size dragons in under a few minutes, as shown when it supposedly devoured an entire Gronckle. But it is quite possible that they have fast digestive systems, as they constantly eat a lot of prey that they have captured in their amber.
Considering their size, Death Songs have strong jaw muscles, as they have been shown to lift up medium sized dragons such as the Gronckle, which weighs over a few tons along with the extra weight of the hardened amber.
They are also very powerful, as it was shown to be able to defeat a smaller Thunderdrum by swinging its tail to the mountain and was able to hold it down with no difficulties despite its heavy weight.
The endurance of Death Song is good enough to endure a Thunderdrum's powerful roar for shorter periods of time, and able to endure a boulder at a high speed and crash into a terrain wall and still able to fly at high speeds without any difficulties to chase its enemies such as the Thunderdrum or Toothless for long period of time. Garff, as a baby, has shown that he is able to sustain strong injuries as he was still able to try to sing to the adult Death Song after he was whipped really hard by the Death Song's strong tail and smacked on the side of a small cliff.
The Death Song was shown to be an extremely fast dragon, although it wasn't able to catch an average sized Thunderdrum, though it's possible that average sized Thunderdrums that are the size of Thornado are much faster than those of a larger size. It has been shown to be able to swing its tail around against its enemies, but has a lack of making quick turns when chasing at full speed.
The best chance to defeat this dragon is to ride a Thunderdrum, which is mostly immune to the Death Song's song. This is because a Thunderdrum's hearing is so poor that they are unable to hear their lullaby. Death Songs also struggle with small spaces, as they can be affected by the echo of their own song.
It's unknown if Death Songs can be trained but it proved to be possible with a baby Death Song, Garff, as he was mimicking the trainers, as songs are the main medium this species uses to communicate within its kind. As a baby Death Song, Garff was able to be calm from listening to the songs of the trainers as he can sing those songs by screeching. Garff has shown that singing can cause a bond with humans like a bond with Heather.
In Imperfect Harmony, the gang stumbles upon an island and stay the night, only to wake up and find all their dragons missing. Only Toothless, due to his inability to fly, remains. He quickly leads the gang to a cove, where they find lot of dragons, including their own, trapped in amber. Soon they hear the Death Song's call and the Death Song emerges. It carefully picks up a dragon, devours it in seconds and returns, spitting amber at all of them. Only Hiccup gets away after Astrid saved him. He quickly finds help and trains a Thunderdrum, which is immune to its call. Together, they lure the Death Song away from the cove and promptly set fire to the amber with high friction and Monstrous Nightmare gel. The amber melts and the dragons are free. While the rest of the team help free the other dragons, Hiccup lures the Death Song into a cramp cavern and traps it there.
In "Tone Death", the riders rescue an egg from the Dragon Hunters. The egg hatches, and out emerges a baby Death Song, Garffiljorg. Though adorable, this dragon can't stop crying and spat amber on Chicken. Heather decides to sing to him, finally putting him at ease. Throughout the next day, the riders take turn to sing to him. However, their effort proved to be futile and they decide to bring it to Melody Island to be taken care of by other Death Songs. However, the moment they reach the cove, the adult Death Song ambushes and traps the riders. Garff and the adult start bonding, but when they start roaring, the adult quickly hits the baby away. The riders realize that Garff has been singing all their songs, instead of the Death Song call. The Death Song attacks the riders, who start singing, and Garff imitates them. The adult looks at Garff and finally takes off with him right behind.
3a8082e126