Thunderbird Perhaps a Haast's Eagle

Just reading a bit about Haast's Eagle, a big old bird - extinct now - that had a wingspan of approximately 10 feet and claws from nightmares.

I wonder if it might have been possible for them to fly up from New Zealand to North America such that they might be noted as Thunderbirds. Riding on a big El Nino, maybe. I don't think there are any direct trade winds that go that direction, since weather patterns in the North and South Hemispheres don't really interact that much. But you know how critters get around sometimes.

I wouldn't mind if Elephant birds were still around. Just think of the Thanksgiving feast you could have with one of those baked and stuffed.

www.nytimes.com...

I would hate to be grabbed by one of those eagles.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I wouldn't mind if Elephant birds were still around. Just think of the Thanksgiving feast you could have with one of those baked and stuffed.

www.nytimes.com...

I would hate to be grabbed by one of those eagles.

Since I generally don't prepare large Thanksgiving meals, I was actually hoping that somebody could come up with a turkey that is small and chicken-sized. I like turkey and it's supposedly comparatively healthy for you, but it's too much for just a few people to eat. And not just for Thanksgiving but for any time you just don't want yet another chicken. I know I could get a smaller turkey breast, but I would like to have the whole bird including the dark meat. I don't know what the dark / white meat ratio is with eagles. Have to go shoot one and see, I guess.

a reply to: Blue Shift

I like getting a turkey breast and a couple of turkey thighs from the butcher. It's a perfect ratio.

I wonder what eagle tastes like?

a reply to: Blue Shift

The Illinois thunderbirds is a favorite cryptid story.
The huge birds were seen by some pretty reliable witnesses. There was quite a thunderbird flap there in the 1970s.
youtu.be...

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: rickymouse
I wouldn't mind if Elephant birds were still around. Just think of the Thanksgiving feast you could have with one of those baked and stuffed.

www.nytimes.com...

I would hate to be grabbed by one of those eagles.

Since I generally don't prepare large Thanksgiving meals, I was actually hoping that somebody could come up with a turkey that is small and chicken-sized. I like turkey and it's supposedly comparatively healthy for you, but it's too much for just a few people to eat. And not just for Thanksgiving but for any time you just don't want yet another chicken. I know I could get a smaller turkey breast, but I would like to have the whole bird including the dark meat. I don't know what the dark / white meat ratio is with eagles. Have to go shoot one and see, I guess.

I usually avoid eating carnivours, even big carnivorous fish. I never hunt for anything that could eat me, I never fish for anything that wants to eat me either. It is bad enough getting bitten by a northern pike or bass, let alone getting bitten by a shark or killer whale.

I don't mind eating birds that eat bugs though, chicken is good. I am not that fond of turkey though, We usually get about a twenty pound bird for thanksgiving dinner, there are about sixteen of us at dinner usually, sometimes more or a few less. It is a family gettogether we have done for most of my life. Also Christmas and easter dinners. Families need to get together for more than funerals.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I wonder what eagle tastes like?

Tastes like freedom

originally posted by: Atsbhct
I wonder what eagle tastes like?

I suppose it would be ironic if it tasted like chicken.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: rickymouse
I wouldn't mind if Elephant birds were still around. Just think of the Thanksgiving feast you could have with one of those baked and stuffed.

www.nytimes.com...

I would hate to be grabbed by one of those eagles.

Since I generally don't prepare large Thanksgiving meals, I was actually hoping that somebody could come up with a turkey that is small and chicken-sized. I like turkey and it's supposedly comparatively healthy for you, but it's too much for just a few people to eat. And not just for Thanksgiving but for any time you just don't want yet another chicken. I know I could get a smaller turkey breast, but I would like to have the whole bird including the dark meat. I don't know what the dark / white meat ratio is with eagles. Have to go shoot one and see, I guess.

just raise it yourself. the last couple turkeys i have had were under 5lb (pretty much chicken size, just longer and skinnier), raised by a friend's relatives. barely enough for 3 people

Never heard of Haast's eagle. I was always of the opinion that the North American Thunderbird was the teratorn, a vulture like bird with up to a 14 foot wingspan that went extinct at the end of the ice age. They are related to condors and would have been known by early Native Americans (referred to as paleo-Indians) right before they went extinct.

Wikipedia

Teratornithidae is an extinct family of very large birds of prey that lived in North and South America from the Late Oligocene to Late Pleistocene. They include some of the largest known flying birds . . .
Traditionally, teratorns have been described as large scavengers, very much like oversized condors, owing to considerable similarity with condors. However, the long beaks and wide gapes of teratorns are more like the beaks of eagles and other actively predatory birds than those of vultures.

My guess is that is was the Teratornis merriami found in the La Brea tar pits in California.

Teratornis merriami.[2] This is by far the best-known species. Over a hundred specimens have been found, mostly from La Brea Tar Pits. It stood about 75 centimetres (30 in) tall with an estimated wingspan of perhaps 3.5 to 3.8 metres (11 to 12 ft), and weighed about 15 kilograms (33 lb); making it about a third bigger than extant condors. It became extinct at the end of Pleistocene, some 10,000 years ago.

The thunder bird, like all the beings in the Native American pantheon, are considered to be real and exist, but are spirit beings. I believe this is because all that is left of creatures like the thunder bird is a cultural memory, or spirit, of an extinct animal.

It's a fun theory, although Haast's eagle had a relatively short wingspan for its size, between 8.5 and 10 feet. They had a larger body but weren't much wider, wingtip to wingtip, than today's golden and bald eagles. There is, however, some scientific thought that Haast's eagle could have preyed on humans, which would have made it more fearsome - and I would think a potential subject for legends of flying monsters.

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
The thunder bird, like all the beings in the Native American pantheon, are considered to be real and exist, but are spirit beings. I believe this is because all that is left of creatures like the thunder bird is a cultural memory, or spirit, of an extinct animal.

Kind of reminds me of that old notion of "race memory," where humans continue to have vague memories of extinct animals going all the way back to dinosaurs (dragons?). I'm not sure how that would manifest itself. Dreams, maybe. We still don't know how DNA encodes instincts. And it's hard to know just how far back the genetic memories go. The Haast Eagle apparently survived until the 1400s. An equivalent large bird in North America that existed before the Ice Age could be remembered through cultural artifacts and myths in the post-catastrophe inhabitants.

As to why they're still occasionally being see up to modern times, I have no idea.

a reply to: Blue Shift

I'd think it more likely the myth is born from sightings of the Condor in North America. Similar size and weight.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: Blue Shift

I'd think it more likely the myth is born from sightings of the Condor in North America. Similar size and weight.

Very possible. It's hard to tell exactly how big the natives thought the Thunderbird was, though. I always got the impression that it was really, really big. Maybe the condor would fit the bill.

a reply to: Blue Shift

There's an interesting story that's circulated among my family that involves this legend/history...

One of my great-great-greats, maybe another great or two in there...anyhoo.

He went west to work for great fur trading companies out in the Rockies/Bitterroots, dodging the Indians, some of whom were none too friendly, and a bit further south the Spanish who were equally unfriendly many times...

Anyway, one day he's, according to the story as he wrote it years later, he was on his way down to a fur rondevous, and he saw a huge bird fly across the mountains in front of him. An eagle but the biggest eagle he'd ever seen.

Later on, when he was wintering with a tribe of friendly Native Americans, he related the experience, and was told by the Shaman that it was likely the Thunderbird that he saw. Kind of ironic...several time great grand dad set the stage for a family history of wild and weird experiences. Sasquatch. Ghosts, and various other spookiness. All factor into my families experiences, on both my moms side, and my dads side. Myself included.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Possible, perhaps even likely, but it's also conjectured that the Haast Eagle may have survived into historical times. Much like pygmy Mammoths did in various places around the world.

Also when few were left, the peoples left their dead for them to provide food till none were left ( Waitaha lore ).

originally posted by: DetectiveFork
It's a fun theory, although Haast's eagle had a relatively short wingspan for its size, between 8.5 and 10 feet. They had a larger body but weren't much wider, wingtip to wingtip, than today's golden and bald eagles. There is, however, some scientific thought that Haast's eagle could have preyed on humans, which would have made it more fearsome - and I would think a potential subject for legends of flying monsters.