The Great Thunderbird

im new on ats so im not quite sure what to do yet but ive read about this "thunderbird" there have been reports right up until the 40's of them being spotted in the deserts of america and even over the vast remote forests of russia,ill try and find the site i saw it on and post back soon.

To my knowledge, the Thunderbird exists within the confines of a Peyote meeting. Physical manifestation would be, so far as I know - a rare occurance.

Similar Giant bird myths exist that could give merit to the thunderbird, below is a brief description of a "roc" which appears in Arabian legend and was often said to carry off Elephants.

monsters.monstrous.com...

Legends such as the "roc" and the "thunderbird" may be based off of the "elephant bird."

users.aristotle.net...

As of now the largest wingspan of a living species is 11 ft. 11 in. the bird was a Wandering Albatross. To give you an idea, below is a picture of a Wandering Albatross.

www.justbirds.org...

As for birds that are currently believed to be extinct the Argentavis Magnificens had an impressive 25 foot wingspan and is shown below as it once was on display at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.


www.angelfire.com...

Also extinct is the Giant Teratorn

www.interment.de...

This should give enough evidence to confirm the legend of the "thunderbird," of at the very least give sceptics a lot to think about. Is it all that unreasonable to believe that some of these birds have yet to die out?

Hey, I was driving down the road one night and saw a Bigfoot with my own eyes.

If someone comes to me and says they saw big bird, Sesame street wouldn't even cross my mind. I'd just ask them to tell me what they saw.

the truth is out there and its waiting for each of us, like a landmine.

Love and light to each of you,

wupy

I've been truly captivated by the thunderbird myth since i was a young boy. I even remember a dream i had about it when i was a very young teenager, an almost primeval feeling of pure awe as this graceful giant eagle glided over the area I used to live, bringing behind it a storm.

Ever since then I've always wondered what it must feel like to see one of these things in real life, as many people claim to have.

There is more than one story of young children being carried off to mountain nests, or in one case being carried off some distance before fighting back and being dropped, if memory serves, one boy survived while another tale tells of a not so fortunate child. Overly large eagles or the so called thunderbird? Apparently no bird should be able to carry a healthy human of the age these children were (about 6 or 7 i think) and no bird would have the "instinctual fault" to try such a thing.

As far as i can remember also, the teratorn is the western name for the argentivas magnificens - they are the same bird, a giant vulture-like bird who is supposedly extinct. In my mind this or something very similar is the most likely explanation for those credible thunderbird sightings, I don't buy into the prehistoric pterosaur theory at all.

If such a creature were to exist i can only hope that one day i might be fortunate to have my breath taken away as it swoops overhead, I find it hard to imagine a more majestic sight as i have been interested in birds of prey from a young age.

There is a video shot by a fisherman named texas john huffer of a pair of raptors he believed to be too large to be eagles - the film has been analysed by ornithologists and is inconclusive but most probably nothing cryptozoological, although the fisherman who shot the video swears the birds were abnormally large (12ft wingspan).

I've also come across the nailed to a barn pic, but know not what to make of it, especially as i don't remember whether i've actually seen the pic or merely read about it in years past and reconstructed a pic in my memory. I'd certainly seen those civil war style pics before.

It would be good if someone could find the barn pic and post it...

As far as that boy and his giant feather link... why not photo the feather next to a ruler or person instead of enlarging a pigeon feather and grafting a ruler on afterwards to make it look larger than it is?




V

Remember too, after the last ice age, there were lots of large predatory bird creatures in North, and especially South America, so who knows? Maybe some survived... Still, tricky to hide a breeding population of meat-eating fliers....

True that, its the same thing with the animals in the water. For example sharks, fish and what not. Most of the rare ones seem to died off, leaving the what I like to call. " The sharks we have today. ", so I'm not surprised if some birds leaved on through out the ice age. But still, there goining to be very rare or near death of old age to be able to last this long.

I too would like a glimpsh of the so called " Thunderbird ", seeing a bird up to that size would sure'ly be a sight to see. And it reminds me of the Pok�mon Ho-ho, as childish as it is. Even Pok�mon had to have a base for there animals, and I'm not surprised if they didn't add the Thunderbird in there.

Tech N9ne

Tech N9ne, I agree in part with what you say how ever your comparison of aquatic creatures to birds leaves out some important information. You must remember that the reason that so many unknown water dwelling entities exist or are rumored to exist is that it is difficult for us to explore the ocean�s depths. It would be much more difficult for a creature favoring the air to exist without humanity becoming aware of it.

You claim that if these animals survived they would instantly be old and near death, you must consider the fact that a breeding population may currently exist or may have existed recently thus making the age of such a creature vary substantially.

If creatures such as the famed Argentavis Magnificens did manage to survive till the present day it would be incredible to witness it first hand (from a distance of course). Though the likely hood of a creature that large going unnoticed for so long it is possible. Humanity has a habit of assuming it knows more than it actually does. The thought that such a creature could have potentially survived under our very noses is unsettling to some and thus many would instantly shut down the option that these �thunderbirds� may have recently or may currently exist.It is amazing the perseverance of some creatures, clearly out of their element, and it is a testament to their survival instinct that they are able to exist despite all odds being set against them.

Life always finds a way.

Ah yes, I forgot about breeding. Silly me.

Ah, I've found my mystery bird.

The first bird pictured in this link...

www.angelfire.com...

I've spotted an identical bird at my home, flying overhead at treetop level. It appeared to have a wingspan of 8"-10" ft and gave a very distinct call, similar to a raven but much louder and deeper.

Until know, I had never run across any information on the Thunderbird.

Interesting Disciple,

The bird in that picture is Argentavis Magnificens and has a wingspan of 25 feet as the link states. If you saw a similar bird with an 8-10 foot wingspan that would be completely plausible as the largest wingspan of a living bird is about 11 feet. Also it is possible that what you saw is a smaller descendent of Argentavis Magnificens.

One strange account of a Thunderbird occurred in Lawndale, Illinois on July 25th of the year 1977 at around 9 o’clock in the evening. At this time three young boys were in one of their back yards when all of the sudden they witnessed two extremely large birds heading straight towards them. They claim that one of the two birds swooped down upon them and closed it’s talons around one of the three children lifting him from the ground and carrying him approximately thirty feet. The boy being carried weighed 65 pounds and frantically tried to escape as his associates screamed to adults for help. The Thunderbird released the boy trough all this commotion and continued its flight out of sight.

This is a very far fetched story I will admit but then again so are all the stories of the thunderbird.

Originally posted by ID
This is a very far fetched story I will admit but then again so are all the stories of the thunderbird.

Most stories are farfetched. If it weren't for farfetched stories, we wouldn't even have this site, now would we?

Some may not believe the Teratorn still exist as a living bird but I swear on all that is holy to me that I saw a Teratorn in 1988. I was in my bedroom in the upstairs floor of an A frame that I lived in here in North East Texas when I saw this huge shadow overhead outside my window when I looked outside I saw a large black hawk shaped bird that easily had a wingspan of about 20 feet. It looked like a small two person air plane. The bird did not flap it's wings but just soared and quickly disappeared over the lake nearby. I have never forgotten the sighting and other than my mom this is only the second time I have told this story. How a bird of this size has avoided being seen by countless people I do not know and how a bird like this has not left more evidence I do not know but I swear on my mother and my sons life I saw the Thunderbird. Is there some paranormal connection? I am not a real paranormal kind of guy but when things like Bigfoot and the such continue to be seen by intelligent rational people without any real proof or without being caught one does stop and ponder about the mystic and unexplained powers beyond third dimensional comprehension.

A few years back, I was in Ogden, UT. It was the spring specifically April and I was downtown and facing the Wasatch Mountains which were about a few miles away. It was a cloudy day up on the peaks, and I was looking at them, when a bird as large as a car came flying out of the clouds and proceeded to circle the cloudy peak. It was the largest bird I have ever seen. I did not get a picture but I saw a monster sized bird that day and never knew they still existed. I am under the impression that it was in the middle of migration, as I had lived there many years and been on the mountains a bit and never seen nor heard of anything like that, at all there. This bird looked like an Eagle in appearance but many times larger than, even the largest of todays known birds, eg. california condor.

I remember i saw a programme on it a while back and it showed a photo taking by some hunter in some woods somewhere in America (cannot remember much about it ) but it showed three HUGE birds flying around above some trees. The photo was real but without any sort of scale on the trees or birds it was hard and almost impossible to tell how big they were.