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Thunderbird sighting


OverSword

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From the article:

he said he saw a giant black bird take off from the ground in a cornfield across the road. He said the wingspan was around 40 feet wide and the body enormous (bigger than small planes). He said he'd never seen anything like it. He said it just flew off up into the clouds and disappeared. He said it wasn't a very graceful flier either.

http://www.sott.net/article/267283-New-Thunderbird-sighting?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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He was going 55mph and saw it out of the corner of his eye.

That's not even close to what the article says. The only thing close to corner was cornfield and he was a t a complete stop.
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That's not even close to what the article says. The only thing close to corner was cornfield and he was a t a complete stop.

I know. That was a reference to another thread.

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Am I the only one thinking if the body was the size of a small plane (e.g. a cessna 172) your looking at 27 feet. its wingspan was 40 feet....... that wing span seems way too small?

Also it would be the largest flying animal in history. Animals were bigger in the past for a reason (oxygen) I can't see a bird getting to that size and living.

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Agreed. T-birds are definetly hard to swallow. (avion funny there)

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40 foot wingspan? Body bigger than a small plane? Holy smokes, that's huge! How can something that big stay hidden for long, especially if it flies in the sky a lot?

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40 foot wingspan? Body bigger than a small plane? Holy smokes, that's huge! How can something that big stay hidden for long, especially if it flies in the sky a lot?

Uh huh. It does have that "BigFoot" feel to it, eh? "It's so big how come no one ever captures one?"

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Interesting. Too bad there is no pic or video. Guess we just have to take the 2nd hand account as is.

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It's very hard to judge the size of something in the air...unless you can triangulate with another viewer, it's hard to fix a distance, and without a sure distance, size estimates are next to useless.

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Hmm, I live in Ames, right off the very road she is talking about. Can't say that I've seen any thunderbirds taking off though.

Maybe you've seen some giant piles of bird crap with lamb bones in it or something?

Or, perhaps not....

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Maybe you've seen some giant piles of bird crap with lamb bones in it or something?

Or, perhaps not....

Well, there are a bunch of deer road kill in that area. No lambs though. Maybe it eats corn. I'd hate for a 40' bird to poop on my car though.

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Could it have been a couple of birds and an optical illusion of distance?

I say this because I had a really weird bird incident earlier this year.. and it was all mundane birds. I was out picking wild blackberries and startled a pair of sandhill cranes. The area there is full of tall grasses and blackberry brambles and a smattering of small trees starting to grow up surrounded by much taller trees. There was a mist up and it was early morning. And boy oh boy even though I knew darn well it was a pair of birds from standing still and fairly close up, it seemed like their combined wingspan was at least 20 feet of wingspan on a really huge bird. Sandhill cranes can have 5 and a half feet to 7 foot wingspans, and this pair is on the larger end of the size.

I have also seen in the early morning and later evening when light is tricky groups of swans and geese in flight in rather odd formations upon takeoff that looked like it could be one massive bird taking off and drifting/flying off.

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I once had a bird poop on my car that covered 1/3 of the windshield and I thought, damn... what the hell did that come out of?!?!?! There were a lot of large birds in the area but I'm thinking sea gull or something of the sort.

Anyway, point being birds leave a lot of evidence behind and I think a bird with a 40 foot wingspan would leave some serious evidence behind.

Seems like the witness, if at a standstill, would have been curious enough to stick his head out the window to see where the giant thing was going at the least, eh? I know I would have. I also have a camera, video and still, on my phone which is always with me (doesn't everyone these days?) I would have had a slew of pics, probably mostly blurry but still.

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I remember a sighting back about 25 years ago in western Iowa as reported by the Des Moines Register. I recall it because I clipped the article out because I thought it was so interesting.

Sure wish I'd see something like that, just so I knew for sure.

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I found this amazing pic of a cloud formation:post-109094-0-55860400-1382140076_thumb. Gorgeous capture! Totally looks like a Thunderbird.

Edited by Lava_Lady
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I found this amazing pic of a cloud formation:post-109094-0-55860400-1382140076_thumb. Gorgeous capture! Totally looks like a Thunderbird.

That's super cool and beautiful!

I seriously want this bird as a pet. I'd ride it to school everyday and have it poop on the cars of people I don't like.

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Use it to fight crime, sell advertising on the underside, make the worlds most massive omletes with the eggs, its really jsut something that needs to happen

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Avian metabolisms are typically quite high. What and how much would a bird with a 40 foot wingspan eat? Now consider if there is one there are at least two and offspring. How could such large birds nest much less fly and feed without being noticed very often? All flight birds grow and molt feathers annually. Surely dropped feathers would be noticed and collected. Most birds have distinct vocalizations. How would a bird that large sound? Then imagine the droppings of a bird that size. They would likely leave large pools of evidence or pellets several times per day. Where are they? Given typical bird requirements and behaviors, it is extremely difficult to believe such a bird exists.

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A 40 foot wingspan is a a tad unbelievable. 12 - 18 feet is about as big as thunderbirds generally get.

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So a condor and some exaggeration then

A 40 foot wingspan is a a tad unbelievable. 12 - 18 feet is about as big as thunderbirds generally get.

Also, based upon what?

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A 40 foot wingspan is a a tad unbelievable. 12 - 18 feet is about as big as thunderbirds generally get.

But even if 12 to 18 foot birds did exist it would still be hard for them to hide around Ames. That is the heart of Iowa's farm country. There are forested areas but they are relatively small and surrounded by people.

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