• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

'Big Bird' (Thunderbird) Sightings

I truly and honestly believe that I had seen a Thunderbird on April 6, 2013, at 2:48 PM on an old telephone pole. The pole was very, very high up so at first I thought it was a hawk or an eagle. The more I stared at it though it appeared much larger than a hawk. It wasn't a condor the plumage was lighter in color. It didn't make a sound, but it was a very, very large bird. I was looking through my window so I couldn't really see it's features in detail. It had some red streaks on its wings...and that was it! I did have a photo that I had shot of it, but it's been lost throughout the years.

I believe you, Jessica.


I'm amazed there are so many responses to this thread. I think it's real, not myth although I have never been privileged enough to have seen one, I do believe they exist. I do doubt that there are very many left.

You never know, stranger things have happened. I might get to see one before they all have disappeared.
 
I truly and honestly believe that I had seen a Thunderbird on April 6, 2013, at 2:48 PM on an old telephone pole. The pole was very, very high up so at first I thought it was a hawk or an eagle. The more I stared at it though it appeared much larger than a hawk. It wasn't a condor the plumage was lighter in color. It didn't make a sound, but it was a very, very large bird. I was looking through my window so I couldn't really see it's features in detail. It had some red streaks on its wings...and that was it! I did have a photo that I had shot of it, but it's been lost throughout the years.
Thanks for sharing that account, as a Brit I keep a very open mind as regards the Thunderbird sightings in the US. It is interesting that the photo was lost as of course we all know about a famous Thunderbird photo that has vanished without trace and perhaps these things aren't meant to be caught on camera. Also, did the photo show any real detail..?
 
I snapped the photo from my living room window. The telephone pole was about 30 feet away...I couldn't take a clear picture of it, but in the photo it appeared large, with the lightly colored plumage and red streaks in its wing feathers. It was not a condor, or eagle. It wasn't even a hawk. To this day I have no idea what bird species it was.
Can you post the photo here?
 
They do say that from about the year 2000 onwards there will be a huge loss of data, photographs and writing simply because tech keeps being updated and making the previous versions obsolete. It's getting so you need to make a meme to ensure your stuff will be retained online!
 
They do say that from about the year 2000 onwards there will be a huge loss of data, photographs and writing simply because tech keeps being updated and making the previous versions obsolete. It's getting so you need to make a meme to ensure your stuff will be retained online!
Not just online, everywhere. It seems to me that each time a major update is done, my dates get changed or lost in "the system". Makes it difficult when you are trying to find something. Like start dates for car insurance. It really does make a difference.
 
I truly and honestly believe that I had seen a Thunderbird on April 6, 2013, at 2:48 PM on an old telephone pole. The pole was very, very high up so at first I thought it was a hawk or an eagle. The more I stared at it though it appeared much larger than a hawk. It wasn't a condor the plumage was lighter in color. It didn't make a sound, but it was a very, very large bird. I was looking through my window so I couldn't really see it's features in detail. It had some red streaks on its wings...and that was it! I did have a photo that I had shot of it, but it's been lost throughout the years.

How big did it seem to be, did it have any unusual or notable features of appearance?
 
It was about 6 feet in length. The wingspan about 8 feet. The plumage was not dark in color, it was a lighter brown and it had red streaks on its wings. It was very large.

I did a Google for "large birds with red wings" and all I got was page after page of the red-winged blackbird. Which is not 6 ft long (!). No wonder you can't identify it!
 
Could it have been a leucistic eagle of some kind? Were the red streaks a bright red or could they have been more 'eagle-coloured' and contrasting with the paler plumage? I saw a magpie once which was white and shades of light brown. I've got pictures somewhere on a disk drive but as for finding them...
 
It was about 6 feet in length. The wingspan about 8 feet. The plumage was not dark in color, it was a lighter brown and it had red streaks on its wings. It was very large.

I guess size estimations can be tricky but I think a bird that was 6ft tall would have wingspan of more like 12?
 
I guess size estimations can be tricky but I think a bird that was 6ft tall would have wingspan of more like 12?

The stated 8ft wingspan is spot-on for an adult female Bald Eagle.
The colour of the plumage is darker brown than Jessica's description though.
Maybe the bird had given itself a dust-bath?

eagle.png
 
I didn't know this, but it wasn't a crane. It had features similar to an eagle but I know it wasn't an eagle since eagle plumage is a lot darker in color.
Maybe the bird you saw was more like this. . . particularly as they are also found in Rhode Island. . .
'Red Tailed Hawk,' almost four foot wingspan, also ~ noted for their red plumage which increases in
intensity?
1650709384080.png
 
I would, if I still had the photo. I took the photo in 2013 on another device. It's been lost throughout the years.
In fairness that pretty much confirms it WAS a thunderbird. If it had been a boring old eagle you'd still have the piccy.

I'm not being sarcastic, just in my old age I'm starting to at least accept the remote possibility that there is something about these phenomena that makes them unverifiable. And I don't mean that they never happened, but that they are some sort of glitch in the matrix and maybe the operators come along and delete the evidence.

Or maybe I'm just going senile.
 
I'm not being sarcastic, just in my old age I'm starting to at least accept the remote possibility that there is something about these phenomena that makes them unverifiable. And I don't mean that they never happened, but that they are some sort of glitch in the matrix and maybe the operators come along and delete the evidence.
Yes, there's some algorithm in the VR that vanishes the evidence.
 
Somewhat unrelated/related, but we lost an old painting of a bluebird in storage for over a year. I had remembered it on a white background and when we found it, it was a tan background, quite unlike what I remembered. I was a bit surprised at myself. Lesson: you shouldn't really rely on memory. You need the evidence.
 
Somewhat unrelated/related, but we lost an old painting of a bluebird in storage for over a year. I had remembered it on a white background and when we found it, it was a tan background, quite unlike what I remembered. I was a bit surprised at myself. Lesson: you shouldn't really rely on memory. You need the evidence.
I suppose it all depends on just how much of snap-shot type of memory each individual may, or may not have.
An impressive event I suppose will make a far more accurate recall from memory depending on if the person is focused on details at the time?
 
Back
Top