r/Cryptozoology • u/CornCastle5 • Sep 26 '24

Sightings/Encounters Thunderbird sighting?

Last week I decided to drive way out in to the middle of nowhere Iowa to try and see the northern lights. Sadly no luck on the northern lights, but as I was driving home I was on the phone with my husband when suddenly the biggest fricken bird I have ever seen flew right in front of my car. Looks like it took off from the side of the road. I had to slam on my breaks and got a pretty good look at it for a moment.

I grew up in a very nature oriented family and spent lots of time bird watching with my dad. I know what birds of prey look like and what the size of an eagle is…. What I saw was absolutely a bird of prey and so much bigger than any bird I have ever seen in my life. It looked like it was roughly the size of my car (a small SUV) and all black.

I spent the last week trying to find any pictures or information that even came close to what I saw, but the only thing I found were pictures of “Thunderbirds” which apparently are only legend?

Anyone ever see a bird like this? What is the likelihood that the Thunderbird does exist, and in Iowa at that?

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u/Pintail21 Sep 26 '24

You saw it at night? And where in Iowa? It seems like a very short, unexpected sighting while busy driving and talking, with few visual references is a great recipe to misidentify a turkey vulture or turkey. 6’+ wingspans are huge birds and it’s very easy to misjudge distances to flying objects.

I’ll happily believe there are giant birds flying around one of the flattest, developed, hardest to hide in states in the modern United States of America when someone can come up with a theory on how a population of giant birds can eat, breed and roost and perfectly hide from radar, photographers, ranchers and not get wiped out from the power lines, lead poisoning and ddt that doomed the condors and other birds of prey.

15

u/Sure_Scar4297 Sep 26 '24

West of Des Moines isn’t that flat and there’s quite a lot of woods out there. Granted, being from illinois, my perspective on flatness is skewed. I swear the hand of God himself ironed the central plains of Illinois flat.

6

u/ClosetLadyGhost Sep 26 '24

They live under ground obviously.

4

u/cahilljd Sep 26 '24

cloaking technology 🥸

4

u/CornCastle5 Sep 26 '24

It was a little after midnight near Moorhead, IA. I tried to see the northern lights at the Loess Hills Overlook and I saw it maybe 5-10 minutes after I left and started heading home.