Giant Flying Raptors (Birds): New Species, Old Species, or Dinosaurs?

For many years there have been reports of gigantic flying birds seen in the skies over the U.S.A. In some cases, the birds were seen to snatch up animals like pigs and sheep, and in a couple cases, children. This would mean they are hunters and would be classified as raptors. Eagles, hawks, owls, and falcons are other examples of raptors.

Could there be any truth in these sightings? Are people really seeing some extraordinary species of bird that science hasn’t yet identified? Or are the culprits all too familiar? Let’s start by reviewing a small list of very large birds from history through today.

Giant Teratorns

Part of the family Teratorns, Argentavis magnificens (magnificent Argentine bird) is so named because of its size and huge wingspan. Now extinct, this fascinating bird is reportedly the largest bird ever discovered. Many good samples of its fossils have been found in central and northwestern Argentina. The photo to the right shows a model of what one would look like in the sky as a silhouette.

Wingspan: 23-25 feet (7m)

Wing area: 87.3 feet (nearly 9m)

Body Length: about 4 feet (1.26 m)

Height: 5.6-6.6 feet (1.7-2 m)

Weight/Mass : 154-171 lb (70-78 kg)

That is one big bird! To give you an idea how large that is, see the picture to the left for a comparison of this bird to a school bus and to a grown man.

Fossils of this Teratorn have been found throughout the desert southwest including Nevada, the Anza-Borrego Desert in California, and the Arizona Strip. They’ve also been found in Oregon and as far east as Florida!

Meanwhile in upper New York state, the former presence of California Condors have been confirmed by Richard Laub of the Buffalo Museum of Science and David Stedman of the New York State Museum. The condor bones were found in an Ice Age layer at the Hiscock Site in Genessee County, NY. The assumption then is since Teratorns and condors have shared habitats throughout ancient history, so it’s possible that Teratorns also found their way as far north of NY state.

Science tells us that today, the bird that comes closest to Argentavis magnificens’ size is the Wandering Albatross. The albatross wingspan is only 12 feet (3.65 m). The Andean Condor is another living candidate which is actually related to the A. magnificens, but its wingspan is only 10 ft wide (3.2 m) and these condors only weigh up to 33 lbs (15 kg).

The heaviest bird known today is the kori bustard and that heavyweight can tip the scales at 44 pounds (20kg) which is still a long way off from the 150+ range of Argentavis magnificens.

Pterosaurs

Most people think of pterodactyls when they think of prehistoric flying animals, but they are just part of a family of pterosaurs that filled the skies back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Actually pterodactyls never actually existed. The term came to refer to pterodacytlus and pteranondon together.

Pteranondon was the giant of this family with a wingspan up to 30 feet. Pterodactylus was small with a wingspan of only 8 feet.  However, recently a new genus of pterosaur has been discovered and named Quetzalcoatlus, a monster from the late Cretaceous era. Its wingspan was about 40 feet. Yes, it was named after the flying, feathered god of the Aztecs.

Pteranondon was actually toothless so scientists think they flew the coastlines feeding on fish. Pterodactylus had small teeth, but nothing especially ferocious about them.

Finally none of the pterosaurs had feathers and the giant birds being seen today definitely are all described as having feathers. So it’s probably safe to say, what people are seeing these days are not pterosaurs.

That said, pterosaurs may have been hanging around at least until 1944, deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Check out this video. I find the witness completely believable. That still doesn’t alter the fact that the birds being seen today, are feathered, and pterosaurs are not.

Thunderbirds

Native American legend gives us the Thunderbirds who got their name from the sound their wings make and the belief that lightning flashed from their eyes. They were believed to live on mountain tops. Some people think the legend of the thunderbird was born from huge flying birds that the people were really seeing.

The description of the thunderbirds more closely resembles the sightings of giant birds being seen today. One thing is clear, in all descriptions and depictions, thunderbirds were feathered. So I’m going to hold out the possibility that these birds may have been based on some real life sightings of the same sort being seen today – large flying raptors.

Let’s look at some of these stories.

Witness Accounts

1868, Missouri: According to author Troy Taylor, this report is the earliest account of someone being attacked by a giant bird. The incident occurred in Tippah County, MO. An eight-year-old  boy was snatched up by what his teacher described as an “eagle” during school one day. The teacher stated that “a sad tragedy occurred at my school a few days ago.” He continued to describe how “eagles” had been troublesome in the neighborhood lately, and had carried off pigs and lambs. Then one afternoon one of the birds swept down and picked up a boy named Jemmie Kenney and flew off with him. The teacher ran outside, but the bird had carried the child off by then. All they could hear was Jemmie’s screams. The bird dropped the boy, but he later died from the fall and the talon injuries on his shoulders.

According to reknowned zoologist Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, even the strongest eagle can’t lift much more than a rabbit or lamb. The experts seem to agree that no eagle or bird of prey can carry off a small child. Yet the evidence seems to contradict that. Jemmie Kenney was snatched, then dropped, and died of his injuries.

April 1890 Arizona: Two cowboys reportedly killed a giant “birdlike creature” with a huge wingspan. Reports said it had smooth skin, featherless wings like a bat and a face that resembled an alligator. They supposedly dragged it back to town where they pinned its wings across the length of a barn. This sounds like a pterosaur at first, but it could also have been a molting or diseased bird. Without feathers, birds look kind of freaky.

July 25, 1977 Illinois:  This is the famous Lawndale Illinois case. Around 9 pm three boys were playing in the backyard of Ruth and Jake Lowe. Two large birds came close and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but ten year old Marlon Lowe didn’t. One bird clamped onto his shoulders with its claws, lifted him about 3 feet off the ground and carried him about 35 feet. He cried for help and his mother came running. She said she saw the bird lift Marlon off the ground into the air. She screamed and the bird released the child.

Mrs. Lowe said she was sure if she hadn’t intervened that the bird would have carried off her son. From what she saw it was more than capable of doing so. She also said as it carried Marlon, the bird was bending down trying to peck at the boy. This is highly indicative of raptor behavior. They try to snap the neck of their prey so it dies immediately and is easier to carry. Fortunately for Marlon, it didn’t succeed.

Everyone described the birds as black with bands of white around their necks. They had long, curved beaks and the wingspan was estimated at around 10 feet. The birds were last seen flying toward trees near Kickapoo Creek.

Investigator Jerry Coleman was able to interview the Lowe family (see photo to left of Mrs. Lowe and Marlon) and other witnesses shortly after the incident. He returned to Lawndale with his brother two years later to speak with the Lowes and was dismayed to find the family had been harassed and bothered by media attention and by locals in the community. They often found dead birds placed on their doorstep by pranksters.

Marlon Lowe had trouble coping with the ordeal. His bright red hair turned gray for a time until it grew out. Mrs. Lowe spent years trying to identify the birds she had seen nearly abscond with her son. She told investigators, “I was standing at the door and all I saw was Marlon’s feet dangling in the air. There aren’t any birds around here that can lift him up like that.”

Animal experts tell us that there aren’t any birds on the North American continent that are capable of doing so, yet something clearly happened to the Lowe family right in Lawndale, Illinois. I believe the witnesses are credible and this case disturbs me the most.

July 28, 1977 Illinois: McLean County farmer, Stanley Thompson, spotted a bird flying over his farm. This bird matched the description of what the Lowe family saw three days earlier. Mr. Thompson and his wife and several friends had been watching radio controlled airplanes when they saw the bird fly close to the model planes. He estimated the bird’s wingspan to be about 10 feet across. He said it dwarfed the small planes buzzing around it.

McLean Country Sheriff’s Sergeant Robert Boyd reported that the witnesses said the bird’s body was about 6 feet long with a wingspan of 9-10 feet. Sgt. Boyd said that Mr. Thompson was a credible witness.

The Sergeant received other reports of the bird sightings, but only investigated Mr. Thompson’s sighting due to his credibility in the community.

Next, mail truck driver James Majors spotted two birds near Bloomington. Mr. Majors was driving from Armington to Delevan when he saw the birds on the side of the highway. One dropped down into a field and snatched up a small animal. His first thought was that they were condors, but they had a 10 foot wingspan, something that condors do not have. The other bird flew into another field and picked up what Mr. Majors thought was a small pig. The sightings upset Mr. Majors and he quickly drove to the next town where he stopped to smoke 4 cigarettes until he regained his composure.

Also on the same day, Lisa Montgomery of Tremont was washing her car when she glanced up and saw a large bird crossing the sky overhead. She described it as black with a low tail and estimated the wingspan was 7 feet. The last she saw of it, it was flying towards Pekin.

July 30, 1977 Illinois: Around 2 am near Downs, Illinois, Dennis Turner and some friends reported a huge bird perched on a telephone pole. Mr. Turner said the bird had dropped something near the base of the pole. Police officers arrived to investigate and they found a huge rat near the base of the telephone pole. Several residents of Waynesville also reported seeing a black bird with an 8 foot wingspan later that same day.

Reports continued throughout the day from Bloomington and the north central Illinois area, then from further south, near Decatur, Macon, and Sullivan. One witness, who reportedly got some footage of the bird(s)  that he later sold to a Champaign television station, estimated the bird’s wingspan to be over 12 feet.

Officials from the Department of Conservation insisted the birds were turkey vultures and nothing out of the ordinary. But wildlife experts (and cryptozoologists) countered that turkey vultures were significantly smaller than the birds reported around the area on the 30th of July.

July 31, 1977 Illinois: Again from Bloomington, Mrs. Albert Dunham reported that she was on the second story of her home when she a large dark shadow pass by her window. She quickly realized it was one of the giant birds being seen throughout the area. She described it as large with a white ring around its neck. Her son chased the bird to a landfill nearby where it thereafter vanished.

August 11, 1977 Illinois: Odin residents John and Wanda Chappell saw a giant bird land in a tree near their home. They described it as gray-black with an estimated wingspan of 12 feet. Mr. Chappell said it looked like a “prehistoric” bird and he figured it could have carried off his small daughter if it got the chance. Mrs. Chappell said they almost didn’t report the sighting for fear of what people might say about them.

Soon after, the general population decided people must have been seeing turkey vultures and no one reported anymore sightings. However, people did continue to have sightings, through at least 2002, but they didn’t report them anymore. The last report received from 1977 was by a witness near Herrick who said he saw two giant birds in a forest outside of town. He estimated the wingspans to be at least 10 feet across. He followed them to an abandoned barn at the edge of a field where they perched for a few minutes. Then they vanished into the sky heading towards Taylorville.

Alaska Sightings

As recently as 2002, there have been big bird sightings in the last wilderness in America – Alaska.  In an article published in the Anchorage Daily October 16, 2002, a report surfaced that said, “a giant winged creature like something out of “Jurassic Park” [was] sighted several times in Southwest Alaska. A pilot that spotted the creature while flying passengers to Manokotak, Alaska, calculated its wingspan matched the length of a wing on one side of his Cessna 207, about 14 feet. Other people have put the wingspan in a similar range.” (Photo to the right is a Stellar Sea Eagle which some claim is what people are actually seeing. However, note the distinctive yellow beak and yellow feet!)

The Associated Press reported a similar story stating, “Villagers in Togiak and Manokotak say the huge bird has a wingspan of about 14 feet – the size of a small plane.” Included in the article was the report of a sighting from a few days earlier, October 10, 2002. A heavy equipment operator named Moses Coupchiak saw the bird flying toward him from about two miles away as he worked his tractor. “At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes,” Coupchiak said. “Instead of continuing toward me, it banked to the left and that’s when I noticed it wasn’t a plane.”

Is it possible these birds sought refuge in the last great refuge in North America? There are plenty of mountains for them to hide in, plenty of food for them to forage.

Verdict Please!

It’s hard to say what’s really going on. Were pterosaurs seen as long ago as 1944 in the jungle of Papua New Guinea? What else could nature be hiding from us? Based on eye witness accounts, the birds being seen in the latter part of the 20th century were all feathered, so that rules out pterosaurs.

But what could these feathered giants be? As per usual in the cryptozoological world, it’s going to take a body to really know for sure. People haven’t even found so much as a feather in these hot spot areas, much less a carcass of the giant raptors. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if anyone finds any evidence. Until then, keep an eye on the sky when you can, and your camera handy.

If you have cats and small dogs, keep an eye out for regular old hawks. I have a friend in northern California whose darling kitty was almost killed by a garden variety hawk. Hawks, owls, falcons, condors, and vultures are all smaller cousins of whatever these giant flying predators are, and given a chance, they’ll attack your little pets.

Til the next time!

60 comments

  1. I know large birds exist ,I have seen one once I thought it was a small plane heading my direction it flaped its wings and banked left in front of me,I couldn’t believe my eyes

  2. My name is Bill Summers and I live near Buck’s Pocket State Park in North Alabama. I witnessed a huge black bird with a white ring around its neck and had some white markings between the wings and tail. This happened yesterday 9-28-12 around 5:00 pm. I was watching it out our kitchen window and it was about 100 yards out near my entrance to the farm. I looked up many birds in my bird book and have seen bald eagles out here many times, I really couldn’t believe my eyes as it flew over a field and then disappeared around some trees. I told my wife Jean that I’ve never seen a bird that big and that it definitely wasn’t a bald eagle because I specifically looked for a white head, this bird had a black head. It flew over an old rusty hayrake near my entrance way and its wingspan was wider than the rake which is around 6 ft. wide. I would estimate its wingspan at round 10 ft. I called a neighbor who live around 1/4 mile from me and asked him if he had seen the bird he watched it land on my county rd. 609 (gravel rd. to my house) He said that he could see a white head and that he thought it was a bald eagle. I told him that I actually saw a black head with a white ring around its neck. he told me that it flew from the road to a large pine tree near my lower pond where it sat for around 5 minutes and then it flew off in a southerly direction. he said that it looked to have a wingspan of at least 8 ft. and that he saw a white head on it. i actually looked on the internet and found that an Andean Condor looks very similar to the bird that I watched yesterday. I think my friend could have mistaken the white ring around its neck for the white head of a bald eagle. Hope someone will be able to see this bird to substantiate my sighting.

    • This is very exciting news Bill! I wondered about those Andean condors, and I also still wonder if some of them haven’t evolved over time to be even larger than science normally expects them to be. It’s also possible your friend did just see an eagle since, as you said, they’re in your area. He may not have been seeing the same bird.

      Try to keep a camera handy, or video camera if you have one, and see if you can get a picture of it sometime. It may stay around that area since you’re near a state park — probably good hunting territory for it. I’m going to share your story with the readers in a whole blog post because they don’t always read the comments section. This is too exciting to let pass! Please let me know if you have any more sightings and/or photos! Thanks for sharing!!

      • We will be keeping our eyes pealed (as my dad would say) Sure hope that someone in the region can substantiate my account.

  3. My name is Jean Summers and I also observed this large bird flying over our pond late yesterday afternoon. I did not have my glasses on but I can see well enough to know I had never seen a bird that large before.

      • I’m not sure about the tail but I think it was kind of fanned out…a lot wider than in the picture you looked at. I viewed several Frigate photos and the females usually have a black head with a band of white underneath the neck. Thinking back on what I was viewing in the 3 seconds or so…it was mainly the head, neck and wings. It appeared to me to be gliding down to land and it soon disappeared behind a huge wild cherry tree and I never saw it again. But thinking back, I remember how long and narrow and black that its wings were. My wife Jean and I talked it over and we really believe that the female Frigate looks more like what we saw that any other bird that we’ve researched. We feel honored that it happened to visit our farm and rest for a few minutes. Thanks

  4. My husband and I saw a very large bird-like creature flying over 72 probably near Scotsborro in Alabama back in 09/10. We seriously were so amazed that we couldn’t look away to grab a camera. We said it looked like some kind of dinosaur or dragon. I can’t remember any details from that long ago but we were just talking about it the other day and wondering why we never looked it up. Now, I’m finding lots of other people saying they saw the same thing around the same time period in the same place!

    • That’s very interesting Alex! If you look at more of the comments, you’ll see another ‘Bama resident saw them too around that time. In the end they thought it was a female frigate bird which apparently was on the news as having been “blown” over to AL by a weather system. But I don’t think their description sounds like a frigate bird — their tails are very long and very thin. All I can say is please keep a camera ready and try to get a close-up if you see any more! Personally, I suspect these large birds are something else.

    • Alex, I really think we saw the same huge bird. I had the same reaction when I first saw it….”what the heck is that, it looks like a prehistoric bird”. I was just kind of shocked at what I had just seen flying over my pasture. It appeared to be double the size of an eagle. You said that you couldn’t remember any details but I was wondering if you or your husband could estimate its wingspan? Was it soaring and how high was above the ground? I told my wife when I first saw it that it appeared to have at least a 10 ft. wingspan. Thinking about what we saw, we’ll probably never see it again in our lifetime. I say that because its the only one that I’ve ever seen in 65 years.

  5. Wow! So glad that someone else in our area saw the bird. In our hearts we were never sure it was a Frigate but we were anxious to give it a name so people would not think that we were crazy.

  6. I live in Texas. For years my dad told a story of a huge bird sighting in Paradise Canyon, Tx. He said it had a hook-like beak and talons that also looked like hooks. He said the bird was flying towards him with its wings expanded and were the length of a pickup truck. The bird flew up and away from him.

    • Very interesting, Georgana. It seems these things show up all over the midwest at odd times. I wish we could get good pictures of them, as well as better ideas of the actual sizes. Hopefully one day soon! Thanks for sharing!

  7. Several years ago in the Ozark foothills of North Central Arkansas I saw what I looked like two enormous birds sitting on an abandoned barn during a storm. I was driving by on my way to sing at a church near there and saw them only for a few seconds but I can say without doubt that they were too big to be any known bird. They were at more than twice as big as any eagle or vulture I have ever seen.

  8. Ithink paleontologists need to review & revisit their body of knowledge & stop being “doctrinaire” if you will & expand their thinking to include previously heterodoxical views about the entire world. May as well now as the day is coming when no one will take them seriously anymore when they categorically state such & such thing is positively, absolutely, indubiously extinct when we know it may very well show up in some national park or something later!

  9. I find this very interesting, just last month my brother in law spotted the same “bird” or “dinasour” described as the above comments, this happened in Lyons Oregon @ “North fork park” ( A river off highway 22)

    • I seen a huge bird bat like hairless bird today with a huge beak and long wing span of 10-12 feet. Looked much like a Dinosaur I’m in west milton ohio it was 3-4 o clock I was driving and I thought he was going to hit my car he was bigger than my honda civic grey in color I’m trying to figure out what I saw. It was not a owl, hawk I wish I had a camera I was in shock. It was HUGE! The lady in front of me had a motorcycle and she almost crashed it looked to be trying to pick her off her bike, weird huh?

      • That’s very interesting Ashley! I’m especially intrigued by the fact you think it was trying to pick-off the lady on the motorcycle. Please keep your camera handy in the car in case you see it again. These birds are popping up more and more. Let us know if you see it again, please.

        … Susan (CryptoVille)

      • I seen it too years ago in Hennepin Illinois early morning as sun was just coming out When i looked up into sky, I would guess over 10 feet. It looked like a prehistoric dinosaur flying while i seen the perfect outline I new it had to be a bat that wasn’t from around here, after researching it looked much like a giant fox bat, I’m guessing it escaped from a zoo, or hitched a ride in a sea shipment or flight cargo area and was heading south with more sightings on it’s journey.

        • also some breads of flying foxes have a white fur neck, Even though there wings spans only 6 feet, they look closest to anything i can think of after seeing it and thinking it was over 10 feet span.

        • That’s very interesting Thadious. I never thought of a giant fox bat. I’ll have to look into that and see if it’s a possibility. Thanks for sharing!

          … Susan (CryptoVille)

  10. Seen this twice once when i was 15 and again 3 days ago in the day time feb 14 around 6pm over temple tx and i have a few seconds of video but by the time i got it it wad high up but it can still be seen just not as good

  11. Driving east on I 10 in southern Az i saw a a very tall bird step out of the brush. It was at least 6 ft in height, all black. Did not set the wing span, but very memorable.

    • That’s very interesting! Do you remember when that occurred?

      Did you see any details like did it have a white ring around its neck? Did it have a “turkey” neck? Were you able to see the beak – was it pointed downward or straight out like a pair of scissors?

  12. I live in Stone Mountain, Ga. A couple of days ago I saw a very large black bird flying just above the trees. I thought it was a condor or vulture because there are plenty around here but it was bigger than them. I also noticed it didn’t have feathers on it’s wings and no tail feathers. Had like a thin tail but not very long. The wings were pointed at the tips that’s how I know there were no feathers. It was gliding and moving it’s wings slowly. Can’t believe no one was looking at this thing or wasn’t on the news. No sure what it was but I’ve never seen anything flying around that big and featherless.

    • That’s very interesting Tif, thanks for sharing.

      I’m wondering if it could have been a Great Blue Heron – it’s long skinny legs stretch out in the back so that could have looked like a tail. And the rest of it looks a lot like a pterodactyl. Here is a link to photos of them – let me know if that possibly what you saw. It helps to “weed out” possibilities so we can further focus on what the heck these big black birds might actually be. Thanks! … Susan

  13. Im still trying to figure out what I had seen over farm land in Illinois. It was brown with a curved neck and wing span at least 10 ft. across. I saw it in Batavia. Was it an extinct bird? Thanks if you can help. It’s wings flapped like a teradactle.

  14. I remember my mother told me that a couple of years before I was born (im 21) she saw a huge black bird outside the house. She said that she felt terrified when she saw it becasue she had never seen anything like it. She described it as being pre historic looking, very big and black with large dark eyes. It had a long beak an enormous wingspan. It was a late night in south texas when she saw it and a friend of my mom also mentioned seeing one once in the same area.

    • VERY interesting, Evelyn!! Thank you for sharing your Mother’s account.

      I really think there is something going on over our skies in middle America. I wish I had the wherewithall to come down and investigate myself!

      Thanks again! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  15. I saw a prehistoric bird last night on alligator ally at 3 am it had huge white wings.this was not a bird….wings were huge..huge huge bigger than my van.jan30 2016

    • Hi Jim! Where is Alligator Ally? Was it lit by streetlights so you could see the white wings? Or was it completely dark? What color was the rest of it, the body?

      … Susan (CryptoVille)

  16. ABOUT 6 MOUTHS AGO I WAS DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD IN NJ AND I SEEN A HUGE BIRD LAND IN A FEILD ID SAY I WAS ABOUT 10 YARDS I PULLED OVER THE CAR AND WATCHED THE BIRD IT HAD TO STAND ABOUT 4 FEET TALL IT WAS ALL BLACK AND AS I WAS SMOKING A CIG IT STRECHED ITS WINGS AND ID SAY IT WAS ABOUT 10 OR 12 FEET ACROSS IVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN MY LIFE IT WAS THERE FOR ABOUT 10 MINS AND THE JUST FLEW AWAY ILL NEVER FORGET THAT DAY

    • Hi Nic! I’m very interested in your sighting. Can you tell me what town this was in? Do you remember anything about the bird’s appearance? What color was it, the wings, the beak, the underside? How sure are you about the length of the wingspan – what was around it that could give you a sense of scale (like crops or other animals).

      What do you think it was doing in the field – eating something?

      If you prefer, you can contact me at cryptoville @ gmail.com

      Thanks!

      Susan (CryptoVille)

    • Hi. Read your story. Awesome sighting. I also had one experience. Driving into the mountains in Hinton, Alberta, Canada. Driving west thru the gasoline alley ahead of me about 100-200 yards, I see something 1/3 the size of a huge 50 ft spruce tree, actually fall out of the tree, opened its wings and one flap, it was across the 4 Lane highway and down into te town area. It was a thunderbird. It had to be. Nothing on God’s green earth is that big other than a Thunderbird. Awe inspiring, thrilling as he’ll. I won’t forget that day either. Early May, 2009.

      • Hi Elke! That sounds like a wonderful experience! I wish you had a camera with you.

        I think many of us wonder about these Thunderbirds and what they might really be. I hope we find out someday, once and for all.

        Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  17. A few years back (2013) I had a similar sighting. It was in Norman, OK probably around 1am. A few of my friends and I were out playing volleyball. All of a sudden, a ginormous bird flys over the apartment buildings. The wingspan had to over 12 feet, it was black/dark grey, and it’s wings looked like bat wings (no feathers). One other guy standing facing North, the same direction I was facing, saw it too. We both were apart of two different groups, but I could hear him a couple feet away say “wait did anyone else just see that?!?!” I ended up walking over to him and we both tried to make sense of what we had just saw, but
    couldn’t. Every time I tell people this story they think I’m exaggerating, or bull shizing them so it’s comforting to know we weren’t the only ones!!

    • That’s very interesting Raven! Was it really 1 am or did you mean 1 pm? I’m thinking if it was dark, it would be harder to see details.

      People sure are seeing some strange things in the sky. I guess we’ll all have to keep our eyes peeled, so to speak. 🙂

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  18. One night on our way home from work about two am we saw a big black thing in the middle of the road at least four foot tall it was an owl eating road kill could have easly took a child away no problem what kind of owl is that

    • Very interesting, Steven, and a little frightening! I know some species of owls get quite large! The Great Horned Owl and Great Grey Owl for example.

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  19. Me and my friend saw a giant prehistoric looking bird in the late 80’s in batavia ill on a small island on the fox river it was perched atop a large dead tree and when it took flight it we were awe struck it was very dark brown/black with long neck and beak, a head like a pterodactyl and tail like a giant hawk its wingspan looked to be 14-18 feet and 6-7 ft from beak to tail it let out the loudest squawk ive ever heard we both still remember it like yesterday.

    • That’s very interesting Dave! The Enfield Horror incident took place in Enfield, IL in the 70s – probably not too far away.

      The fact that you say the head looked like a pterodactyl rules out a lot of other types of birds that could be mistaken for it. I wish someone could get a good photo of it!

      Thank you for sharing your account with us, and thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  20. So what I saw at dusk here in southern Arizona tonight brought me here Ive been to so many sites trying to verify or at least ease my mind a little, I watched this GIANT black bird swoop down and what I thought was going to pick up the neighbors dog ( but it didnt) the dog ran under the trailer.. It flew over a pickup and between two trailers giving me a way to measure the width of the wingspan which was easily at good 9-10 feet! Never in my life have I seen ANY bird this large! Ive seen plenty of vultures and condors this was NOT one! ..Still trippin….I believe these stories 100%!!

    • What an exciting experience, Kei! And it must have been a little scary too! I’m so glad it didn’t get the dog.

      Could you describe the bird a little more – like what did the neck and head/beak look like? Were there any other colors on the feathers that you could see? How big would you estimate was the body?

      If you manage to get any photos of this bird, please share them with us! This is very exciting especially as it’s such a recent sighting!

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  21. When I was a young girl I saw a bird seemingly as big as a small house with two babies I was amazed I immediately went and told my family I continue to talk about it it was amazing I lived in Illinois at the time the bird was a dark brown feathered

    • Hi Sharlene! How long ago was this sighting? In what part of Illinois? Do you remember any details about the birds – like what color they were, did they have long necks like a vulture, or short like a hawk? Could you get a feel for their size next to something known like a tree or shed?

      I’d love to hear more about this. It seems more and more people are coming forward to report sightings of these huge birds.

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille!

      Susan (CryptoVille)

  22. Wow.. I’m shocked I actually found other people who have witnessed this huge bird thing. Last year my son and I were sitting around our fire pit in the backyard. I happened to see something out of the corner of my eye and looked up to
    See this massive solid black bird thing gliding above us. I screamed and told my son to go in the house, I was frozen in place, completely in disbelief.

    This thing had a wingspan of at least 20ft.. I know because it was larger than our 15ft round above ground pool, the thing was HUGE. It was about 30ft above us and gliding really smooth and slow, like it was looking for something. We do not live in the country.. we live in a regular suburban area outside of Houston Texas.
    To this day my son and I still have no idea what it was.. he thinks it was a pterodactyl but it had feathers on its tail and wings and no feathers on its head. I wish I could have gotten it on camera or something. One day someone is bound to catch it on camera or Video.

    • Very interesting account, Andrea! I’m especially fascinated by the fact that this took place in a suburban area, not somewhere more remote. Thank you for sharing your story!

      And thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille!)

  23. hello,im Israel from sterling,illinois my wife and me was on vacation in Utah on our way back from a dinosaur excavation site traveling down a highway in 1996 when I spotted a dark figure in the middle of road.i was bored I wanted to see how close I could get before it flew away.the closer I got the bigger it got.i was amazed its wings could touch both sides of the highway and yes it flapped like a winged reptile,body was small but large maybe st.benard dog size.later when I looked up bird it was last seen in 1943.im always fascinated by unclassified animals still existing today.good luck on your hunt.

    • Hi Israel! When you looked up the bird, what did the reference say it was?

      This could be a case where science thinks something is extinct, but they’re still hiding out in remote areas.

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille!

      … Susan (CryptoVille)

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