I came across this article recently of a possible thunderbird sighting in West Virginia. I would be interested to know if anyone on the forums has had encounters with these monster birds? Any believers out there with theories on what they may be? Possible surviving teratorns etc?

Check out the story at

http://www.paranormalnews.com/article.asp?ArticleID=1232

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While not recent, my encounter happened in the mid-Sixties. I was a youth of 12 or so, and I was with three other youngsters en route to a creek on a fishing expedition. This happened outside the village in which I lived, about 100 miles west of Omaha.

We were on foot, about a mile into the country, walking along a gravel road, fishing poles across our shoulders. We noticed a very out-of-the-ordinary bird ahead, in a shelter belt (grove of trees). It was perched in a large tree. As we walk on, I kept observing the bird. It was black, with no distinguishing markings. It was gigantic! I'd never seen anything like it, and have never to this day (I'm 54).

As we walked on, probably getting 1/4 mile distance, it flew off to the north. My memory is one of enormous size, of bewilderment, but not of fear or apprehension. It flew in a right angle to our approach. I'd estimate a wingspan in excess of 20 feet. It flew off, we continued onto our fishing creek. It was uneventful after that.

I mentioned it to my parents, but they seemed unimpressed. I let it pass, but never forgot the encounter. I can't explain what I saw. It was far larger than any vulture or other raptor. California is half a continent away, and this bird would have been far larger than a stray condor. It was simply gigantic, and it leaves me with a sense of wonder to this day.

YowieMan,
What's the story behind that picture you posted?
Where did you find it?

YowieMan,

If you are not already familiar with it, I suggest you get a copy of Mark A. Hall's Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds. The author does a nice job reviewing the history of these reports and discussing theories.

Incorrigible1: any idea as to how long it would take a condor to fly from the Sierras to eastern Nebraska if it were riding a really big weather front? Friends of mine who work in Condor restoration were surprised at how capable these birds were of going from SoCal to the Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona. I can imagine the Black Hills(which would have some excellent habitat including the carcasses of megafuana) being within a days glide of Omaha. Maybe it's more possible than we think.

A good 500 miles of fairly featureless plains between the Black Hills and my village. This was in the Platte river valley, and flat as the veritable pancake. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a condor requires mountainous regions to ride the thermals generated there. Believe me, I've considered the California condor, but have severe doubts if one has ever made it that far east. Still, that's no doubt the most logical (?) explanation.

Mountain ranges help to loft prevailing airmasses even whithout thermal input. Thermals are the result of solar heating of the surface of the earth and are what generate the specacular thunderheads seen out on the prairies and other places on sunny summer days. Mountains introduce an immovable object and so create turbulence and uneven heating and instability which in turn act as a region from which instabilities originate. Additionally, condors are very visual animals and the Platte would be a very conspicuous landmark and perhaps suggest to a scanvenger's instinctual intelligence the presence of animals and perhaps a meal. 500 miles is not out of the question for a condor to travel. These birds are truely amazing. I fully understand how unlikely it would be for a teratornis to have survived but cases of gigantism in animals do occur.

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Here's a pic of a rare Thunderbird in the wild. Kinda fuzzy, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Hi

Turkey vulture anyone

http://vulturesociety.homestead.com/TVFacts.html



Peace
Tim

Two of my favorites,


The Union won the battle at pterodactyl hill.
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Boy with bat bird
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Texas Bigfoot, I'd have to conclude that when you have enough money you at least drink the finest commercially available beer in the world, Chico's finest; Sierra Nevada.
I shoulda invested cuz I'm sure I sent at least one of the owners kids to a fine college.

You'll find Sierra Nevada Pale Ale listed in my member profile! It's the best.

Red ratsnake, I'm not sure if you directed the vulture link to me, but I'm well aware of turkey vultures. What I saw wasn't a turkey vulture. Of that I'm sure.

A close friend of mine swears he saw what could easily be considered a "Thunderbird" when he was a Boyscout, along with several other witnesses (for the record, he never called it a "Thunderbird", nor did his Scoutmaster at the time)...

According to their account, they were cleaning up trash in a state park (in I believe East Tennessee, but I may be remembering incorrectly, as I'm not reading the report at the moment), and walked down a small hill to retrieve what they believed to be a large black garbage bag sitting on a limb in a tree...

When they got close, the "garbage bag" spread out wings, described as being MUCH larger then any turkey vulture (which get large and we have plenty of around these parts), and proceeded to hop off the tree limb and take to the sky...

Both witnesses said it's wingspan easily looked 12 or more feet, spread out, and that they'd never seen a bird anywhere near as big thus far in their lives...

I just found the picture randomly on the net but I can't remember where. From what I can rememeber, it was a reconstruction of a Teratorn from the Natural History Museum in LA. Just thought I would add it with the article to show people what size they where considered to be. It's one big bird!




Thanks! I'll check it out!

Yeah, believe that's the model of the Argentavis, which is indeed a Teratorn...

Here's a few more pics to show just how big these guys got...





E. would be Argentavis, with F. being an Andian Condor

Huge bird...

This is where I found the picture. It has a small blurb about the Teratorn also

http://www.lightmission.com/Public.Web/Con...x?ArticleId=118

I don't drink anymore, but when I did it was only the best. Unfortunately, I quit prior to gaining knowledge of that fine brew, so I'll take your word on it.

I saw Monsterquest on Thunderbirds today and for the heck of it did a search and found this old article...this might change the theory that only African eagles eat people!

tirademan

Hi

I watched them all today, Didn't have anything else going on, We have some big Turkey vultures around here, Sometimes they fly over the house and you would think that a plane went over, Cool article

Peace
Tim

My friend's grand-aunt swears that she saw a Pterodactyl as a girl in TX. This would have been in the 1920's. She was walking with her brother and it flew over them. According to my friend, her aunt was quite convinced of what she saw. I wonder if she saw a rare Condor?

I admit to a certain fascination with big birds. We have turkey vultures here, I noticed two of them circling my property and went out to find one of my hens dead in the yard. : (

Redwolf

If it's large and unusual it will end up at my feeder! They always do...

You must be a good cook!!!

Hi Incorrigible1.
I found the subject of Thunderbird quite interesting. A friend from my dad told me this story, and I think you'll find interesting. He was wandering with a group of friends in the highlands of Guatemala, and after some hours of hiking, they arrived to some wilderness area. One of the members of the expedition came terrified, because she saw a huge black-jet bird with a tremendous wingspan, perched on a tree. The tree swayed because of the weight of the creature, which was screeching. The other members saw the bird for a short time, got scared and left the place immediately.
I asked this friend from my dad, and he told me the bird was black and large as a person, with a wingspan of more than, 3 meters. Bigger than local vultures, owls and eagles. I ask him if it was something like a condor, and he told me he had seen andean condors in a zoo of south america. The animal looked bigger than that, so they considered a monster.
At that time, I have got a book from "Time Life" about mysteries of the world. I just could think about something: Thunderbird. Some birds are migratory and feed or nest in places
really far away. What if the bird is indeed, a thunderbird and nest in isolated regions of Central America?

Anyway, if I suddenly encounter this guy in the woods, [image below, an female andean condor], I'll probably freak out.
Greetings.
K.A.

And that's exactly what people do sometimes, freak out. They see a big, unfamiliar or out-of-context bird and their brains for some reason fill in details that interpret the bird as much larger than it is.

Some more insteresting fotos. How large a condor is? In theory, it is a large bird, here 2 people from South America captured one....(Don't try this at home!!). In theory, californian condors are just a little bit smaller.

This one landed in a backyard somewhere in South America...

Some columbian villagers found this one sick, he flew at very low altitue and fell into a well. People took care of him, took him to the vet and set him some months later.

The last condor foto from the Internet. I choosed this one because it is impressive
In the website, it had the following legend, that the photographer wrote to amuse his friends.
"The guy told me not to run, and not to move, Its feet were deathly. It could not fly, but it attacked with the fierceness of a dragon and he grasped the hair of an old woman".

Greetings.
K.Adam

Well Thunderbirds are reportedly much larger and I mean much larger than even the largest South American Condor.

'reportedly' being the operative word. Until there is a bird that can pick off a Cessna like a pigeon, I believe these sightings are known species. As a kid, the movie Rodan actually creeped me out way more than Godzilla.

I mean, this is what I'm interested in ... only not as dumb looking ...

Hi! This is the interesting part of the thunderbird mistery. In the post I wrote above about the sighting of our friend, he told that what he saw, was not a condor. There are no condors in Guatemala, but he's indeed a good observer and told us, that he had seen condors in south american zoos.

I asked an older friend who liked birdwatching and had several professional books about local birds. He suggested, very rationally, an out-of-place california condor.

But the mistery goes on. People usually report a "black-jet" raptor bird (remember Monsterquest?) with gigantic proportions. So huge that people get really scared. It matches with the description our friend gave to us. Surviving teratorns? (Other possibilities for mis-identification are jabiru storks and harpy eagles).
Greetings
K.A.

There are plenty of big birds out there that can startle people when seen out of context, up close, etc. Modern reports of thunderbirds come from people somehow interpreting these birds as much larger than they actually are. There are no surviving teratorns or any other type of living, flying creature than our largest condors, eagles, storks, albatrosses, etc. While some of these may have wingspans > 10', none of them are anywhere near the size of a single-engine Cessna.

Andean thunderbird, the definitive proof that Thunderbird attack and prey on human!!
Attack of the andean condor

Male and female condon on a native ritual to praise the andean spirits

Look my new bird pet!!

Fighting andean thunderbirds!!!

Enjoy.
K. Adam.

OR ON MY MOTHER IN LAWS TELEPHONE POLE.

I've been trying to run something down for the last week. I was reading a historical novel, in which numerous other interesting facts I was able to find references for, or if they were not facts they referenced other well sourced myths. So, when it mentioned that the Rukh or Rok nested in or near the Taklamaklan desert I was intrigued... but I've not been able to run down any source for this. It is of course entirely possible that this is plain fiction, or it could be some obscure mythical reference that I can't find.

Anyway, stimulated by this, and equating the Rok or Rukh with the Thunderbird I decided to see where it led me. The Taklamaklan is a cold duny desert, there's not a whole lot of other extant deserts that are a good match for it. However, there are one or two duny deserts in the south western US, and northern Mexico, I have the impression that this is where the core of thunderbird sightings come from.

Now, reviewing known species from the fossil record, this one stuck out...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiolornis

Not a lot known about it, but it has been found in desert areas. Secondly I was rather amazed by the picture of the reconstruction here..
http://www.desertusa.com/anza_borrego/abphoto/a_bird.jpg
which is a dead ringer for some depictions of the Rok I've seen, and has features recognisable on Native American thunderbird motifs. Hard to say whether the reconstructor was influenced by these or not.

Now desert nesting makes a whole lot of sense, especially in the kind of desert that is very inhospitable. The chicks were postulated to be vulnerable for 6 months or longer. A supersized bird able to fly out to find food would not have much problem with lack of resources.