I encounter a Thunderbird (yup for real)

many years ago when I was in my mid twenties I lived in Phoenix Az. One November I think it was 1982, my three brothers and one of their friends and I decided to go inner tubing on the Verde River. Global warming wasn't quite as horrible then and it was cold and rainy in Nov. as one would expect. No it wasn't inner tubing season we were being dumb,everyone tubes the river in summer around there but it was off season for sure. So we went, the weather was overcast and drizzly in was cold in the water,as you float down this river it's like a canyon with cliffs on either side and then it opens up where there are cliffs on one side and a more open area of flat land and sand bars

So all do is float in your inner tube looking at the sky ,and along came this Humungous bird! It was flying above us along the river below the level of the cliff top and it was being chased by a Bald Eagle! I was dumb struck, and as we floated the eagle continued to harass the larger bird. I got to the sand bars where we had decided to meet to go back home and just as I got there the huge bird zoomed right over my head about 15 feet above me.

It looked like a vulture or a condor it was all the same color of grey,and no it didn't have glowing red eyes or a strange magical properties ,it was a real bird just really really big. so I made you all a diagram so you can hopefully appreciate this stupendous thing

s270.photobucket.com...

fascinating story, as Arthur C Clarke once said- the universe isnt stranger than we imagine, its stranger than we can imagine- i suggest u look up Red Elk on the web, he's an intertribal medicine man and inner heyoka, he speaks a lot of the lore and accounts of thunderbirds in the americas, thanks for sharing.

What you probably saw was a condor of some sort. Cant tell you the species but the California Condor can grow to have a wingspan of 10 feet in the largest documented cases.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS
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did you catch my comparison diagram? I know it was a condor of some sort but 14 to sixteen feet is way outside the wingspan of any know bird,I'm only saying it was big ,not magical,just a bird

I didn't know anything about this kind of thing back then but it was a rainy overcast day and that is the kind of day the native Americans say,you will see them,so I call it a big condor of unclassified nature ,maybe the last one ,who knows

reply to post by invisiblewoman


There are giant squids, giant boars, and even alleged giant bass, bears, and rats.

Giant squids are known to exist and also giant pigs ("Hogzilla") and immense bears in Alaska and Canada haven been proven to be real. Although very rare, there are species that can come in enormous sizes. Take humans for example, the average male is 5'10'' in America, but there are also people over 7 foot tall in the world-very rare, yet real.

This bird was most likely a known species of bird (maybe a Condor or Turkey Vulture, I'm not bird expert), but it was just a mutant bird--an over-sized bird for various reasons I don't know.

reply to post by Monsterenergy791

I'm glad you said this ,that is the best reason I can come up with for this also, a freak of sorts ,boy howdy that was one big bird! we all strung out along the river and my brothers were so excited we couldn't wait to tell the rest of our family what we saw.
the thing I liked about this sighting was there were so many markers to enable us to be very accurate about the size ,I did figure out a long time ago that the biggest problem with most large bird sightings is no references as to size in the environment. For instance when it flew over me I could tell that it's body from head to tail tip was approximately as long as I am tall 5'5''

Honstly, red eyes or not, something that big would scare the # out of me!!! LOL

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Honstly, red eyes or not, something that big would scare the # out of me!!! LOL

HAHAHA you're not going to believe this but I was to amazed to scared! Also I don't have the innate fear of birds that afflicts some people,a phobia I had no concept of until recently. Here's the funny part,I mentioned that it flew over me VERY close,it wasn't until many years afterward that it occurred to me,it may have been checking me out as a prey item, maybe some healthy fear really big birds would be helpful in the future! Guess I have that pesky eagle to thank for being able to tell the story!!!!HAHAHAHA

That's fascinating. Too bad you didn't have a camera with you. Thanks for the diagram though.

reply to post by invisiblewoman


This post is one of my favorites, and definitely very majestic.

Regardless of what he saw,

Great post.


I'm so glad to finally be posting on ATS, and this is above and beyond my favorite Forum and Section on ATS.

There needs to be more activity here, I'm trying to revive it right now in fact.

This is years later after you're all long gone, but I'm waving to you here from the future and you don't even know it.

I guess helping to revive this forum is a good way to get my post count up so I can make posts.

Once I can, I will bring attention to this long forgotten Forum!!!!!!

Oh by the way I encountered a White Thunderbird for real in my life, too.

But it broke down after two weeks and would cost 2,000 to fix the transmission


Needless to say I junked it.

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
fascinating story, as Arthur C Clarke once said- the universe isnt stranger than we imagine, its stranger than we can imagine- i suggest u look up Red Elk on the web, he's an intertribal medicine man and inner heyoka, he speaks a lot of the lore and accounts of thunderbirds in the americas, thanks for sharing.

nice~ someone seems to know about the heyoka.
i realize this is an old post... but im glad to know that people know of what heyoka are.

op, spirits tend to protect those who need it from things as vicious as a thunderbird. provided... thunderbirds arent exactly bad. as a heyoka i must admit... that MIGHT have been one... seeing as you said the weather was a bit cloudy. must say though... darn shifters are a rare sight to see, your lucky if you managed to see one ^^;

cool story! pretty neat the eagle was attacking it for size reference. need to get my post count up. i got a couple good urban legends i want to post.