a loner raised in a forest with her family, night was born to stone and hawk alongside two stillborn kits. on her mother's side, she has two older half-siblings by approximately 10 moons called starling and jet. her parents were at best distant, too enveloped in their own love to spare any more for their child. her siblings were unable to get over their mother's disloyalty to their father, taking it out on night as she was an easier target.
after a string of unfortunate events that ended with her leg being badly injured, night fled her home, settling on the edge of thunderclan's territory before it was occupied. she struggled on her own, mostly due to her injury that left hunting difficult and fighting near impossible. eventually she was found and taken into thunderclan, renamed nightbird for her quickness and agility.
once healed and beginning to provide for her clan, nightbird was driven by a new purpose. indebted to her saviors, she worked hard to prove herself, even though she struggled with the more interpersonal aspects of clan life. she was given lightpaw to train, and eventually worked her way up to a lead warrior position. she also began mentoring duskpaw during this time, doubled up on apprentices until lightpaw graduated. despite her apparent avoidance to forming close connections, she found a close friend in the like-minded son of howlingstar, raccoonstripe.
when the clans were plagued by yellowcough, nightbird volunteered to journey to the mountains for a cure. the group faces many trials as they traverse the mountains to find the lungwort, through them she forged friendship with gentlestorm (hailstorm at the time). her face was scarred in a rockslide and body exhausted from the activity. almost home, they had to split due to stormpaw's injury. nightbird decided to return on time in order to deliver the lungwort, alongside stormywing and batwing. she makes a promise orangeblossom and her clanmates that are staying back that a patrol will be sent to highstones every day until their arrival. after nearly two moons of absence, she returns and must break the news of little wolf's death to her family.
shortly after returning, raccoonstripe and nightbird recognize their feelings for each other and become mates, although they would not make it formally known until the end of the moon. duskpaw becomes a warrior, renamed duskbird, leaving her free to take in palepaw as an apprentice. she graduates to become palefire, and the same night abandons her guard post with a group of other apprentices. due to their negligence, nobody is alerted to a pack of wolves invading camp, killing and injuring many. a plan is formed and nightbird accompanies howlingstar to request windclan's permission in leading the predators through to the gorge. they accept, but in doing so batwing and duskbird are lost.
as the warmer months come, so do many mouths to feed. thunderclan seems over run by kits, warriors suffering as they eat most of the prey. while nightbird is in the medicine cat's den recovering from being trapped in a snare, her mate breaks the code in order to hunt on skyclan's territory. despite the disagreement that ensues, she finds herself pregnant with his kits weeks later.