Moa

The Moa is a flaming eyeball ghost that appears in The Adventure of Link.

Their movement pattern is similar to that of other ghost enemies such as Ghini and Poes, floating from left to right and swooping erratically to close in on Link. Every time a Moa collides with Link, he loses not only a moderately large amount of health, but also a few experience points. Moas attempt to swarm Link in large numbers. The best way to defeat these flying spirits is to use either the Up or Down Thrust.

The red Moa found in Western Hyrule is slightly weaker and can be seen by anybody, but the blue Moa found in Eastern Hyrule is stronger and invisible to Link unless he has the Cross. These invisible Moa also appear in Old Kasuto with a purple coloration, but are the same strength as the standard blue variety.

Fiery Moa
Fiery Moa only appear in the Palaces, and act quite differently to their overworld relatives. Instead of swooping at Link, they will fly overhead and usually out of reach and float straight above Link's path, dropping flames from behind it as it does. The flames will drop to the ground and burn for awhile before disappearing, blocking Link's path and causing a lot of trouble if other enemies are nearby. Fiery Moa can usually only be reached and destroyed by using the Jump Spell.

Captain N: The Game Master
Moas appear in the "Quest for the Potion of Power" episode of Captain N: The Game Master. While Link, Princess Zelda, and Kevin are in a graveyard, a large group of Moas suddenly appear. Although the heroes are successful in defeating various Moas, they decide to run away as they cannot hope to defeat all of them, and they leave the Moa-infested graveyard via a tunnel that leads to the Island Palace.

Trivia

 * Moa are based on the concept of a Hitodama, a ghostly ball of flame that represents a deceased human soul in Japanese folklore.
 * The Girubokku enemies from the same game greatly resemble Moas in being giant floating eyeballs. However, they fight rather differently, traveling around the screen for a short distance before opening their single great eye, which is Link's only opening to attack, and do not appear to be ghosts.
 * The Graveyard found in the Death Mountain Area, which was home to Ghini in The Legend of Zelda, is instead home to red Moa by the time of The Adventure of Link.
 * In the Famicom Disk System version of the game, Moa do not steal experience points.