My encounter with a huge vulture

Another topic here on ATS reminded me of my other personal experiences. I may be a very luck, or an extremely #ed unlucky person just to see so many things in my life. Whatever...

Well, it's been a very long time. i was like what? Ten maybe. I was on vacations with my friends here on a place close to São Paulo called Guaruja. Me, my brother, my friend, his sister, my mom and his mom found a very desolate beach to swim, since the other beaches were full of people.

Well, there was alot of wild life on that place. It was the 3rd time i saw a monitor lizard native from the region called Teiu and as well alot of birds and fishes swimming alongside the beach..... And as well as alot of fish carcasses. So this is where the history begans.

It was like the 5th time we were on that small beach. When we first arrived there we found a big fish carcass. One the sky we could see alot of vultures planing (there was like fifthty of them). We stayed there for like 30 minutes and started to swim and then we saw something huge on the sky coming trought the vultures. The vultures flyed away when the figure first. Then more fast than my eyes could see the animal landed, He stayed on the sand next to the fish carcass. Then my mother and my friend mothers started to scream to us to get out of the water and come back.

But i was stupid, i loved animals in this age and wanted to stay cloose of the animal. So i just sitted on his side, the animal totaly ignored me. By his size i could say he was around 8 feet tall. He dind't opend his wings in any moment. In this moment the animal picked the fish with his mount and swallowed the fish. And then he just stayed there. And then i got bored and leaved to my mom's side. Then she just runned way with us. The animal stayed there like a statue.

The best way i can describe the animal, is that his apperance was exactly like of a Vulture, but he was much more bigger. And i see vultures every day, so i can say that the animal i've saw wasn't a normal vulture or wasn't one. Perhaps the legendary Thuderbird?

I remember seeing one fly above me one time and the wingspan had to of been atleast 10 feet.
I think it was just a really old vulture.
It's not far-fetched.

You were a child at the time so if you thought he was 8 feet tall he probably wasn't.
Your perception as a child is always exaggerated. I guess it's possible though.

Cool story.
I wouldn't discount it... there are stories out of South America about living pterodactyls, not to mention all the other cryptids whose sightings can't be discounted offhand...
I don't see why this shouldn't be a credible account.

I can't speak about condors in South America, but the "California Condor" can have a wingspan of 8 1/2-9 1/2 feet (259-290 cm.). For the American Bald Eagle, the wingspan is from 7-8 feet ( 213-244 cm.)

Remember, these are more or less official STANDARD dimensions. There will be exceptions in sizes and perhaps some birds in areas close to the Amazon forests are yet entirely unknown.

So this one bid was how many times the size of the vultures that flew off?

I once saw 3 or 4 huge birds ridding a thermal above Phoenix, Az one summer day. Based upon the cloud height for that day they had to be 5 to 10 thousand feet up. I was using binoculars. I estimated these birds at 20+ foot wing spans. I thought that couldn't be right but, the more I observed planes at the same height the more I felt the size was a correct estimate. I've watched a few large birds ridding thermals since then and it doesn't compare to what I saw that one day. I even looked into the possibility of condors from up north soaring this far south but, I did not find anything saying they come this far south. I am still baffled as to what I saw that day. I guess for now I still believe there are huge unknown birds out there.

I do know there is a condor in South America and I think they are larger than our condors.

Cool story.
One came to my door one time.
It had a brief case.
It said IRS on it.
lol
Actually we called them Turkey Buzzards
And man does their breath stink.