Giant Bird Sightings in the Midwest

The first item informs nicely how they go to roost in complete safety.  They rely on swamps to provide nesting isles which makes complete sense as that eliminates the risk of egg stealing rodents in particular.

We also understand that these birds can roost within any large evergreen whose lower branches provide a skirt providing ample cover.

We have collected a bunch of these reports from the site Phantoms and Monsters.  We are well beyond a mere handful..

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Giant Bird Sightings in the Midwest

Monday, June 17, 2019

 https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com

“Many years ago in southern Ohio, some buddies and I were out scouting for new places to go hunting. While walking through the woods, we came up to a big swamp. As we were standing there taking in our surroundings and talking, for about 10 minutes or so, about 50 yards away, gliding down from the tree tops, was what we all thought was somebody in a hang glider going to crash into the water, but after a second or two of observation, we were in awe that this was a huge bird that resembled a California Condor but much larger. It stayed in our sight for perhaps another 5 or 6 seconds. It never flapped its wings in its descent down, just glided to a place in the middle of the swamp where there were lots of dead trees and cat tails that obscured any further sighting. We stood there for a while thinking it might show itself but it never did. On the drive home, our opinions differed on the size and even if it was a bird at all, maybe a giant kite or remote control plane that somebody was flying and crashed, since it did not flap the wings, but we found that highly unlikely since we were in a very remote area. But we all agreed the wingspan was at least 12 feet or more.” - citizen-x

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“I live in Shelbyville, Illinois. In the early 1960s, I would have been about 10 years old, I saw a huge bird sitting on top of our milking barn. The bird was several times larger than an ordinary buzzard.




When the bird flew away, it's wing span was half the length of the barn, so that would be about 20 feet. I will never forget it.” - Carl Borders
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“Around 2009, in Plainfield, Indiana, I was outside. It was around 12:00 noon. I happened to look up at the sky. I spotted a huge black bird in the sky that cast a big black shadow. I had to look about three times or more, since I thought it was a hang-glider. It was not. The wing span on that thing was about 20 feet across.” - Dixie Pierpont

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Giant Bird Sightings in Puerto Rico, Massachusetts & Michigan

Posted: 12 Jun 2019 01:22 PM PDT 

“You know that Indian folklore in part tells the truth. I'll explain. Back in 2001-December to be exact, I went on a cruise to the Caribbean. It was a Royal Caribbean cruise. On our third or fourth day, we landed on Puerto Rico. One hour into port, a group of ten of us got a tour guide for just about an hour. Well, the tour guide was explaining spots of interest in the island, but since it was like a rainy-overcast day, he said that it wouldn't be possible to visit those sites. He took us to the beach in San Juan. We all got out, the sun was out just for like 20 minutes. I was married to my ex-wife at the time and I was taking pictures of her just a couple feet from our tour bus. Well, I saw the clouds coming in, the cloud was shaped almost like an arrow, at the tip of the arrow were two giant birds. They both had white rings on their necks, one was way larger, the other one was about the size of a Cessna propeller air-plane. I yelled to the tour guide to look up at the cloud, and repeated to all the members to look up, but by that time, the two giant birds went straight up higher than the clouds. Then the rain came down and we quickly went into the bus. Nobody believed me. I took pictures of the cloud. I still have them, but the birds weren't in the view. Indian legend says these birds bring rain clouds to villages that are in need of rain for planting their harvest. In a way the Indians were right." - Manuel Ponce
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“In approximately summer, 1975, I saw a shadow on a 100 foot granite viaduct, looked up and saw this ENORMOUS bird! I waited for my dad to come home from work. At dinner he was quiet, I said, 'Dad, I saw something strange today.' He replied, 'You saw a thunderbird, so did I.' He drove cab in town in Boston, but we lived in the burbs. We both saw same thing, same day, 25+ miles apart. Crazy right? Except we're of indigenous ancestry and of the Thunderbird clan. These are spiritual creatures.” - tripleyoker
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“I saw a Thunderbird in about the spring of 1975, in Muskegon, Michigan. I was plinking at stuff with my new BB gun and I saw a sparrow. I shot at it and right next to it a GIANT Bird took off! I was about 10 years old and can tell you this thing scared me so bad I ran. I was about 15 or 20 feet away from it and can guarantee that the wingspan had to be 25 to 30 feet long with at least a 3 foot width. I thought the wing closest to me was going to hit me. It was a Thunderbird for sure.” - Bruce Cook


Massive Birds in California: Natural or Something Else?

Posted: 07 Jun 2019 01:11 PM PDT 

“I saw a bird in California on the western slope of the southern Sierra foothills that was so huge that my brain could not even register what I was looking at. The first few moments that I looked at it, my brain was trying to register it as a guy in a condor suit, or some kind of man made device that looked like a giant condor, but it wouldn't hold in my mind because it was up in the air hovering in place in the wind while batting its massive wings. So its body was a little bigger than the average sized man. I ended up thinking of it as a condor and just thought they must be bigger than I thought. That bird was huge enough that it could probably fly way up in the air and glide from the mountains where I was straight over to the pacific coast and channel islands in no time, and I think that's what it did because I don't know what it could possibly eat except dead whales, sharks, dolphins, sea lions etc., but the area I saw it in was full of open range cattle which die on the range all the time, and it was a place that blew forty mile an hour winds every day for the bird to ride on.” - Stuart Johnson
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“One summer vacation, when I was a kid in the sixties, my dad took the whole family on a camping trip on the nether side of Folsom Lake, in California (east of Sacramento). And, on a hike by myself one day, I saw a bird perched on a tree trunk. Not on a branch or a twig: the trunk. Because it was fully five feet long from the tip of his tail feathers to the top of his head. And it looked like a brownish grey hawk or eagle, or something like that. Not buzzardly or vulturish or condorlike. But five feet long. I didn't ever get to see the wingspan. I just watched it for a while and didn't actually feel much like stirring it up just to see it fly. I just hiked back to the camp, eventually, and never even mentioned it to my parents. Because I was nine or ten or something, and there was no way they were ever going to believe me, anyway, so.” - Dwylbtzle Dwylbtzle
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“I went in my backyard in Squirrel Valley, California. There was no light and the sound of it was as big as these Thunderbirds are described. I never saw a damn thing but the sound of its wings was unquestionably bigger than me and I was in 7th grade. We had all gravel in my backyard and I was just laying on my back trying so hard to see anything in the black night. It stayed there for a good couple minutes and it flew off and I was so mad, I couldn't see a thing. I didn't even care to tell anyone. Every flap of his wings was impossible to believe. I guess I doubted myself and I thought I'd hear an eagle or something later in life that would explain that night but I don't think I ever will." - Gary York
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“I remember the summer the Silverado Canyons in California caught fire. There was the freakiest large bird. It had huge crawls, a sharp beak that would put fear in any animal 150 lbs or less. I wouldn't turn my back on that bird. It was hunting to eat. It ended up looking at my pitbulls to maybe attack one. It was just sitting on the fence daring one of my pits to attack it. My pits were smart enough not to separate until I threw something at it to make leave. It didn't leave far either. It wanted one of my pits. My pits have killed other animals in the backyard too. But this bird was a monster to my pits.” - BBB



Massive Birds Observed in Alabama, Missouri and Kentucky

Posted: 04 Jun 2019 10:30 AM PDT 

“I used to live in Springville, Alabama. About 8 years ago (2010), during a cold winter spell, I woke up early one morning and looked out my front window. About 30 yards away, I saw three extremely large black birds by the rear fence. Two were on the ground, walking around by the frozen pond. The third was standing on a fencepost with its wings outstretched, I think to catch the morning sun to warm up. They were all black with immense rectangular wings. The neck was long, very vulture-like, but thickly feathered. I grabbed my camera and tried to stealthily open the door to get a picture, but the birds all took off before I could get outside to get a picture. I grabbed a measuring tape and went down to get an idea just how big these things were. The one I'd seen on the fencepost gave me the best measurements. I traced the wingspan on the fence and determined the wingspan was 18 1/2 feet!!! I was raised in Kansas and had seen vultures, eagles and hawks all my life, but I have NEVER seen any bird that large. I've never seen them again. I hope the next time I do, I and my camera are ready.” Rick Lambott
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“When my nephew was around 10 years old, he was hanging out with his friend at his friend's house out in the country. They were outside by a car talking, when they noticed a large shadow above. They looked up and saw a large black bird. He said it was the size of a small plane. He is 30 years old now and is still amazed at what he saw. He had never heard about Thunderbirds. I told he had seen the legendary Thunderbird. This was in Northeast Missouri. I have never seen one myself. I told him he was lucky to see one." Sharrie F
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“In Frenchburg, Kentucky I witnessed a four-foot-tall woodpecker; red head, black, with four white rings around the bottom of the wings. It was in 1989, June. It had landed on top of a building across from the building I was walking out of! Where I live now." BK

 

Huge Thunderbirds Encountered in California's Trinity Alps Wilderness 

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 

 


“I live in the Trinity Alps Wilderness of California. I have had two encounters with Thunderbirds up close and personal. The first was for about 10 minutes at a distance of 200 to 500 feet while it circled overhead. The second time one flew past me at a distance of about 15 feet. If I had any idea how big it was, I would have tried to shoot down the first one because I had time to get a gun. The one who flew past me was as big as I am, and the wings were 22 to 23 feet long as it flew between the trees on the driveway. It tucked in its wings to pass through the trees. I measured the trees and they are 30 feet apart. The birds looked like eagles except for the size and wing shape. The wings were straight from root to tip with no gaps at the end between the feathers. The wing tips were round, which is unusual for most birds. Other than size, the birds were not unusual in any way.” - HA