The Great Thunderbird

No I am not talking about the car made by FMC. I am talking about the gigantic bird with a 30' wingspan that some people say they have seen. Does anyone think it's possible that this marvelous creature exists. Or have you seen one? Where do you think this creature would live - mountains, thick woods, in a cave? Please discuss The Great Thunderbird with me.

[edit on 10-12-2004 by Growling Lion]

well there is'nt really much evidence on this "thunder bird"
i heard it was some sort of viking norsemen myth?

i think its possible it once existed......could have been pteranodon or one of its relatives

There have been many stories about these thunderbirds appearing all over the country. In fact, I remeber once, when I was about eight, two of my friends and I, were running through a wooded field at about dusk. Out of nowhere a very large bird swooped right over our heads, not unlike a hawk would on its prey, and flew back up between the trees out of site. Now, to three young kids this bird looked like it had a twenty foot wingspan and just missed our heads as we ducked. I've always wondered what kind of bird this was, was it diving at us and and was it really that big.

Originally posted by lepracornman
well there is'nt really much evidence on this "thunder bird"
i heard it was some sort of viking norsemen myth?

actually, the thunderbird was a creature of aboriginal legend. apparently by flapping its wings, the thunderbird created huge storms and giant hurricanes. i myself have not seen this bird, but instead have heard many a strange bird call in the forest at night. i am a "professional" bird watcher, and cannot identify the sound. it is my belief that the thunder bird, jersey devil, mothman, and chupacabras are all one thing: a new breed of pterodons. the first three creatures have wings, and look like the pterodon genus by discription. chupacabras, however, don't look much like them, and one could argue they don't have wings. but in the earlier cases ol' chupes was spotted with wings, which has led me to believe these are all the same creature.

I was watching the Discovery Channel and I saw this show about large killer cretures that were around at the same time as man. One of them was a giant bird that could pick up a man and fly away with him/her. The birds were around a few thousand years ago. Maybe they survived?

Originally posted by Webmonkey336
I was watching the Discovery Channel and I saw this show about large killer cretures that were around at the same time as man. One of them was a giant bird that could pick up a man and fly away with him/her. The birds were around a few thousand years ago. Maybe they survived?

hey man, you never know. back then there was also giant beavers, and the aboriginals had legends of creatures called Beaverines. So maybe all these stories and stuff are just that. stories. maybe the thunder bird isn't real. maybe it is. you never know. absence of proof is not proof of absence.

I think that The Thunderbirds are some argravits Magnificens(sorry only know its latin name), a bird with a 25-35 foot wingspan, that are still flying around. The reason that the indians thought that they brought thunder is because birds as large as they were could only fly on the powerful winds of storm.

I believe it was Argentavis Magnificens. Here's a very informative site on historical and present day giant birds.

Giant Birds

I guess nobody around here reads Native American mythology. First off, the Thunderbird is revered as the Native American's great creator deity, not viking, aborigonies, etc. but American Indian. Many Native cultures have the thunderbird as a deity: Navajo, Apache, Cherokkee, just to name a few. I suppose such a creature could exist. Who's to say what exists and what doesn't in this age that has lost touch with even it's most primitive roots. I believe a lot of these things exist but being so blinded by material greed, we can't open our eyes wide enough to see them.
I can't believe no one around here researches Native American myths though. I'm on several sites that seem to ignore these cultures; such a pity these wonderful cultures get totally ignored as they have much to offer.

Originally posted by cleasterwood
I guess nobody around here reads Native American mythology.

First off, the Thunderbird is revered as the Native American's great creator deity, not viking, aborigonies, etc. but American Indian. Many Native cultures have the thunderbird as a deity: Navajo, Apache, Cherokkee, just to name a few. I suppose such a creature could exist. Who's to say what exists and what doesn't in this age that has lost touch with even it's most primitive roots. I believe a lot of these things exist but being so blinded by material greed, we can't open our eyes wide enough to see them.
I can't believe no one around here researches Native American myths though. I'm on several sites that seem to ignore these cultures; such a pity these wonderful cultures get totally ignored as they have much to offer.

Dude, when i said aboriginal, i meant native american. it's just that I'm canadian (and an aboriginal-sorry, native american) so I'm not gonna call them native-americans if they live in canada. I'll refer to them as first nations
OR aboriginals. by the by, the photo of the giant bird is fake. it superimposes one pillar in the background. the shadow should curve, but it doesn't. And also, most great creators in aboriginal stories are either giant turtles, the daughter of the sun, or the sun and moon themselves.

[edit on 12-12-2004 by satchbfoot]

Many different cultures have giant bird myths. They're probably based on two things...actual large birds, and larger birds that coexisted with ancient man. Remember, some of the birds our ancestors encountered made condors look like swallows, hehe.... So it's only natural that these made their way into legend.

There are some great hoax pics out there by the way. One was of a civil war era photo, still looks pretty interesting, even though it was part of an ad campaign. Another was of one nailed to a barn, but that pic is harder to find. Saw it on here once, a couple years back, but then the link was broken....

Originally posted by Gazrok
Many different cultures have giant bird myths. They're probably based on two things...actual large birds, and larger birds that coexisted with ancient man. Remember, some of the birds our ancestors encountered made condors look like swallows, hehe.... So it's only natural that these made their way into legend.

There are some great hoax pics out there by the way. One was of a civil war era photo, still looks pretty interesting, even though it was part of an ad campaign. Another was of one nailed to a barn, but that pic is harder to find. Saw it on here once, a couple years back, but then the link was broken....

You can see the civil war pics here and also realise that there have been some recent, and what appear to be reputable, sightings of a large winged creature here in Alaska. This "thunderbird" has been sighted by natives, pilots, and others on the ground, if you google on Alaska large bird sighting you will see many reports, etc. It has been on the local television stations, people round here took the sightings seriously.

i recall a documented account of victorian miners in Britain discovering a live pterasaur of some description, either that or they were tunneling for a railway. It came out and staggered around a bit before dying. I can't recall any details, I'll look into it.

Yep, there were apparently some sightings near where I used to live in Kodiak, AK... Still not much more than some witness accounts.

The biggest problems with an aerial cryptid though, is it would be almost impossible to hide a breeding population from observation....

Originally posted by Gazrok
Yep, there were apparently some sightings near where I used to live in Kodiak, AK... Still not much more than some witness accounts.

The biggest problems with an aerial cryptid though, is it would be almost impossible to hide a breeding population from observation....

Actually, it's surprising just how much the human being fails to notice. I've said this before, but a while back in New york, a group of young amateur documenters set out t oprove just how little the human brain notices. They dressed two men up in huge, purple gorilla suits, and had them walk down the street, bumping into people. After a person was bumped into, one of the filmographers would go up with a camera and ask if they saw the big, purple gorilla that just bumped them. Half the people said no.

So, a large population of large birds could exist, but it's not very likely. It is my belief that these birds live somewhere else, like in the mountaineous regions of the world, where they are very rarely seen. And perhaps once in a while, one of these birds comes down from the mountains.... and is spotted by a small population of tourists, truckers, aboriginals, native americans, who knows.

There's an expedition after a Thunderbird-esque Cryptid flying around the cryptozoology.com forums, see the topic on a living pterasaur for more info.

Good point, and in Alaska, this could very well be the case. The number of people per square mile is pretty slim.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for them to find something, but the odds seem staggeringly against it.

Still though, odds have been wrong before...

I agree with Satchbfoot, they probably live in the mountainous regions of the world. The sightings I've heard have happened around mountainous places. Pennsylvania, Alaska. I think they might even live in the Andes mountains(I don't think we have explored the Andes much).

Here's a link to a site with some stuff on the Thunder Bird:

Thunder Bird
The Thunder Bird myth is perhaps one of the most wide spread among the Native Americans. Thunder Bird mythlore can be categorized into two types: as a benevolent (or sometimes malicious) nature deity, or a type in which the bird is not spiritual but corporeal and co-extant with the aboriginal inhabitants of pre-colonial North America.

monsterattackforce.itgo.com...


[edit on 23-12-2004 by satchbfoot]