i think they might be nighttime spawns. everytime i see a cockatrice in the champaigne it was during night. same thing with the ones in the meriphataud mountains.
Surely there has to be more of them in the mountains? I could only find approximately one spawn of them. After killing 4 or so, I grew tired of it and left, as they seemed to spawn once every 10 minutes, with just a single bird spawning. Has anyone found any more of them anywhere in the zone? THis one was just south of the spine, slightly to the west of centre
Be carefull as they can petrify you and then procede to beat you to death. I needed about 2 more hits to kill one with 300 HP left and it did this to me.