Feasibility of humanoids with bird heads

Question

Humanity has spread out in the cosmos, colonizing various worlds, cataloging countless creatures, the usual interstellar species activities. One day, however, humanity finds a species that is arguably like them, yet very very different.

Appearance and behavior

The species, reasonable named demons, have the physique of a human, their hands and feet possessing claws that are capable of breaking rocks with a few punches and kicks. Their torso looks very similar to a humans torso, but is arguably much tougher and can resist a great deal of blunt force trauma. The head of the demons look like crow heads, the heads look like they are covered in small feathers but are actually covered in tiny black hairs, and On the back it sports two large bat like wings.

Now, the demons are called such a name because of how they act. They have been seen to destroy entire ecosystems on other worlds, torture and then kill off any less advanced creature they come across. When they are finished causing torment and chaos towards that planet, they will then turn it into a burning lifeless world.

intelligence

The demons as a species are surprisingly very very old, meaning that, they have been around for untold eons. They possess technology that is capable of turning planets that were rich with life and flowing with water, into planets that are lifeless and flowing with lava, technology that is capable of stealing a person’s consciousness from their body, and placing it into a new body that is capable of withstanding fire and much much more.

extra facts

The skin of the demons is capable of withstanding a high amount of heat and blunt force trauma, but it isn’t invulnerable to explosives, gun fire, and more. The home world of the demons, is surprisingly filled with life, albeit very dangerous life. The creatures, although being very intelligent, are very aggressive with one another, showing that they posse a more territorial like mentality. It is unknown why these demons hate life so much, but it’s theorized that the reason why they hate life so much is because they view it as being a plague upon existence.

what environmental pressures would lead to a species looking like humans with bird like heads and bat like wings, and what parts of the description are feasible and what isn’t?

Answer 1

You've basically provided the answer in your own question under the extra facts. The life co-existing on this creature's home world is dangerous. So given sufficient intellect, who controls the sky, control the world. They can take refuge in arboreal communities or settle in places inaccessible by those tied to the ground. Avoiding competition permits evolution of other aspects like language/advanced communication, control of fire and tool use. Once those three things are common within the species the basis for the road to becoming an advanced species is laid.

Their bird like heads might be a remnant of insectivore days, when they picked food from between narrow crevices in rock or wood, thus having great advantage from having a beak. As your species advance further, more options of food become available yet evolution takes longer to adjust than the developments that can be made.

A problem might be that most tool use require opposable thumbs which is incompatible with wings. But if you look in real life, Crows are fiendishly smart already compared to other animals and birds. Given time and ingenuity and further advancement of technology solutions might be found.

tl;dr: Life on ground to hostile, take to sky!

Answer 2

These demons could have evolved from thermophilic drepanosaur-like creatures with 6 legs, no tail, and fur. They may evolve into a flying creature, with the wings on the central leg pair. Some of the flying creatures might end up in an isolated region like an island. They could become flightless and start to live on the ground, and would also likely grow larger if there was much food. In order to catch higher-up food, they may evolve to stand upright. They might also start to grab things with their forelimbs, which would lead to them becoming hand-like and dexterous. These dexterous creatures might start using simple tools. This could lead to the different species becoming more intelligent to allow more complex tools. They might also start to live together in family groups, and gain a form of language to teach other group members about the tools.