Thunderbird Picture: India

The following picture was sent to Cryptomundo. (You want to look at the second picture with the palm trees.)



The following story/ies accompanied the photo:

I think I saw 2 gigantic birds above my house in Kerala, India. I guess the wingspan must be that of a small plane. I took a pic with my Motorazor v3i. Thunderbird in Kerala, India?

and later

I’m a 32 yr Government Officer settled in the city of Trivandrum, Kerala State, India.

The pic was taken in March 2007. I don’t recall the exact date.

The birds suddenly appeared overhead (this was noon) when I was on my terrace. They seemed too large to be an eagle or other bird and albatross, Andean condor, etc. do not exist in India. I suppose the wing span must have been the size of a Cessna aircraft. I was too surprised to take a second pic, they passed overhead and left. I guess this is the first report of a “thunderbird” from the East.

Kerala has numerous coconut trees which are very large, hundreds of feet high. You can make out in the pic that the first bird, even though being much higher than the coconut trees, still appears to be very large. If it had been on the ground, the size would have been gigantic.

I am unwilling to provide my exact address and name, as I desire my privacy and I don’t want to be bugged by unwanted people.

Personally it doesn't look that big to me. I've seen many vultures and eagles in my life, and this really doesn't look any bigger than any of the birds I've seen.

There is a follow-up story on Cryptomundo which may identify the bird, and point out that it may be nothing more than a optical illusion.

I thought the mythical thunderbird was American in any case?

Edit: Fixed sentence.

[edit on 15-5-2007 by Gemwolf]

looks like an albatross to me, or like you said an eagle or something

Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time believing that those coconut trees are "hundreds" of feet high. As for albatrosses not going to India, they may not be native, but they can surely get there.

That parrot is dead. Hold on there folkes that's no parrot. It's also not an albatross, the wing shape seems all wrong, just looked at loads of pics and can't see any with the splayed wing tip thing going on which you see a lot more with birds of prey.

Depth perception is a problem with this pic.

And I'm sure Thunderbirds all had a number on the side!

Originally posted by Gemwolf
I thought the mythical thunderbird was American in any case?

And I also thought that there's no such bird with a wingspan over 11 some feet? Look, location doesn't really matter since we are, after all, speculating about the existence of a bird with at least a 15 foot wingspan.

Besides, the East isn't without its legends either. Ever heard of something called a Roc? A very large, mythical bird that's supposed to have carried away elephants for lunch.

'Course, if you add in the exaggeration factor, I think that we may be looking at the bird that inspired the myths. Assuming the pic is authentic, anyway.

Those tree's don't look like their anything near 'hundreds of feet' tall. More like 20 some feet. Either way, it still makes the bird pretty large, and the outline is definately strange looking.

[edit on 15-5-2007 by Voidmaster]

albatross video

this is a video of an albatross, compare and contrast to the pic.

I strongly doubt that it's an albatross.
1. The shape of the wings differ.
2. Albatrosses don't have the "divided" primary remiges. (Which usually indicate bird of prey.)

(Trivandrum is a coastal city, which wouldn't make albatrosses impossible.)

It has been suggested that they are black kites, which has similar tail and wing features, but these birds are just too small IMO.



The cinereous vulture fits the size bill - they can reach wingspans of up to 9 feet - but again, the shape doesn't really match. Then there's the Eurasian Black Vulture, which also has a wingspan of 8-10 feet, which is not unknown in these parts. But again, the shapes are not an exact match.

Cinereous Vulture
Eurasian Black (Monk) Vulture

@Voidmaster - man, I would love to see a bird that carries of an elephant for lunch!


[edit on 16-5-2007 by Gemwolf]

It looks like the bird is in same focus as those trees? Which means it isnt that large..

I call bogus.

The big bird is just closer to the camera than the smaller bird. The camera is most likely on infinite focus, so everything in the frame will be in focus.

Also, I would think they would have taken more than one pic if they believed the bird was that big at the time they were taking the pictures.

There once were some huge birds, perhaps they are still around in secret. Legends of "Thunderbirds" are most likely very old stories of the teratorns, giant condor-like birds. The largest teratorn was Argentavis Magnificens, it had a wingspan of about 25 feet.

A more likely giant cryptid bird (though not in India), would be the Haast's eagle. It had a 15 foot wingspan, and fed on the moa, but when the Maori people wiped out the moa, the eagles fed on them. Long story short, the Maori wiped out the Haast's eagles as well, but this time in defence. I wish these eagle's were alive still, I'd totally want to get one...

I am from India guys and looking at that pic it definitely is a vulture

the palm trees dont grow more than 30-40 feet so its pretty much a a large vulture and nothing else