Howlibird (Empath stories)

The Howlibird was a creatures that the Smurfs encountered about five years before Empath's final return from Psychelia. Created from a failed plant growth formula that mutated a harmless plant into a carnivorous creature, the Howlibird brought fear and terror to the Smurfs by attacking them and their village. Papa Smurf tried to reverse the properties of the formula in order to turn the Howlibird back into the harmless baby bird that it once was. However, the reversed formula only shrank the creature down to less than Smurf-size, rendering it only able to cause harm to creatures smaller than itself.

Sometime after Empath's final return from Psychelia, Lord Balthazar got a hold of the shrunken Howlibird and restored it to its normal size, this time using the creature to capture Smurfs.