Talk:Thunderbird (cryptozoology)

message: I swear I've seen that photo, and I know it was before 'freaky links' existed, but it might have still been a fake made to illustrate the idea of the original. Actually it looked more like an old-timey drawing, like the original political cartoons.
:I felt like I've seen it too when I read about it in another book, but when I tried to figure out where, I just couldn't. And I have read quite a bit about cryptozoology and other strange phenomena, starting in the '60s. (ok, now I'm dating myself!). I'm certain it cannot be in any of the major books and I do not have a great range of newspaper sources. If I did REALLY see it, it must have been in one of the magazines, such as Fate or one of the UFO mags I picked up when I was a kid. But Fate and the rest have been searched with no results. As much as I think I've seen it, as long as it can't be found I have to put my memory down to psychological causes, such as what's suggested. And let it be a good example of how tricky human memory is, even my own. CFLeon 08:45, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If you're talking about the upside down bird/pterosaur drawing, with the men standing behind it and it hanging in front of them, it is a copyrightten image they do not own the rights to. I had sworn I'd seen the photo as well, but upon seeing that image again, I realized it was, in fact, that drawing which I had seen. I could remember it quite well, considering, but I had forgotten it was a drawing, not a photograph. I think it is rather likely that it is the source of the remembered photographs. Titanium Dragon 04:40, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

text: Aaaargh! Definitely too kitsch! Totnesmartin 11:17, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Photo

message: He claimed to have seen it fly over a thunderhead cloud that was over a group of hills to the south that was approximately one and a half miles from where he was standing. The boy claimed that from his point of view it looked the size that a crow-sized bird would at twenty feet away. From this it could be assumed that the flying creature reported had a wingspan of around twenty-five feet.
:One and a half miles, that's 7920 feet, which means by the rule of three that an object appearing to be the same size as a crow at a distance of 20 feet must be about 400 times the size of said crow. If our assumed typical crow has a wingspan of 2 feet, than said larger bird would have to have a wingspan of almost 800 feet, more than twice that of the infamous Spruce Goose. Even a really open-minded cryptozoologist should find the thought that such large birds exist anywhere in the world ludicrous! As far as Wikipedia is concerned, the number suggested here ("twenty-five feet") just makes no sense at all in relation to the other numbers. Aragorn2 19:09, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Aragorn2 is correct.  Article text changed. 64.122.41.167 03:03, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plausibility check 

message: Removed a troll's rants. CFLeon 00:42, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Biased Comments 

message: Just removed this:
"A Thunderbird was reported in Wichita Kansas in the early hours of the morning late in November of 2006 by the self proclaimed three-time alternate for People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, Charles Coley II. The overwhelmed Coley described a gargantuan birdlike creature that was staring at him as he walked out of his house. Coley was found to not be under the influence of any controlled substances." Totnesmartin 20:22, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  No comment! 

message: I have a friend who lives next door to me. He didn't say it was but from the description it sounds like what he and his friend saw was a thunderbird. Monksbane 6:51, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Maine

message: Is this the origin of the much sought-after Thunderbird picture? Titanium Dragon 06:27, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Thunderbird picture found?

message: Some cryptozoologists first theorized that the thunderbird myth is based on sightings of a real animal. Regarding the question whether such a large bird could have flown at all, the prehistoric vulture-like Aiolornis incredibilis (previously known as Teratornis) which was described in 1909 had a wingspan of around 5 m (16 ft) and was capable of flight, but probably would have favored heavy winds to facilitate takeoff. This bird, however, was almost certainly never seen alive by human beings, but a slightly smaller relative, Teratornis merriami must have been frequently encountered by early Amerindians.
It is generally believed that Merriam's Teratorn was a dynamic soarer, riding upcurrents of heated air. Their finger bones have adapted to bear the load of huge primaries, allowing them to maneuver expertly in strong updrafts, as typically found associated with storms (Campbell & Tonni, 1983).
Paleontologists reject the continuing existence of a large and conspicuous bird like Aiolornis or Teratornis in modern times, and anthropologists point out that American Indian thunderbirds were not especially similar to this creature (and usually not very similar to birds at all). The changes of "thunderbird" records over the years - from pterodactyl-like beings in the late 19th and early 20th century to teratorn-like birds becoming prominent from the middle 20th century onwards, as reconstructions of teratorns were reaching a wider audience - suggest that most records are considerably shaped by underlying expectations. In a similar vein, cryptozoologist John Keel states that his mapping of Thunderbird sightings corresponded chronologically and geographically with storms moving across the United States, but this is only to be expected in either case.
It is furthermore telling that thunderbirds are commonly described as condor-like; while an old vernacular name of Aiolornis is "Giant Condor", this is erroneous since the two birds are not very closely related, and while many early reconstructions of teratorns show condor-like birds, it is far from certain that the birds looked very alike, and indeed even considered not likely at all today.
However, it is generally accepted that the first people that settled North America did in fact encounter Teratornis merriami, making it the largest flying bird ever seen alive by modern humans. American Indian tales of mammoth-like animals suggest that it is possible for oral tradition of an incredible creature to survive 10,000 years. Thus, the most likely explanation for the Thunderbird legends is that they are mythologically expanded narratives based on the Teratornis encounters 12 millennia ago. Midden remains prove that Merriam's Teratorns were hunted and eaten by Amerindian settlers.
There is also some sort of picture of the Thunderbird in El Paso, Texas on the Franklin Mountains.
</blockquote>
'Nuff said I hope.Skookum1 (talk) 03:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Modern humans, not "humans" - although only modern man is known in N.A. - and until the fossil record shows otherwise, the generally accepted paleontological view is the one Wiki has to go by. HammerFilmFan (talk) 22:39, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Merriam's teratorn

message: *In the 1960s and 1970s, sightings of a large bird the size of a Piper Cub airplane were made in Washington, Utah, and Idaho.  
Please do not return this information to the article without a citation.--BirgitteSB 14:14, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  contested statement removed 

message: I'm an Native American & Related to One of The Cowboys. However The Photo is in Fact Real Not Faked Because I have it in Basement. I Even Saw the Thunderbird once But Ddid not report it,  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.188.106.35 (talk) 12:01, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  The legend of Thunderbird. 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Thunderbird (cryptozoology). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090816231958/http://www.cryptozoology.com/cryptids/thunderbird.php to http://www.cryptozoology.com/cryptids/thunderbird.php
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA072707.mysterybird.KENS.ba5c450e.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 19:48, 22 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified (January 2018) 

message: I wonder why no one ever added the complete description from the Epitaph? Possibly because a 160 foot wingspan is less plausible that just "an enormous wingspan", and the detailed description doesn't fit other speculations as well. --tronvillain (talk) 20:38, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Epitaph Report