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                                                                      ©Copyrighted by Dave Ayotte & Caty Bergman

UNX: BIG BIRDS
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TOC (Table Of Contents)

     [ WHY ARE BIG BIRDS SUCH A BIG DEAL? ]

          Pterosaurs

     [ NOTES ]
     [ HISTORY ]
     [ TIMELINE ]
     [ BIBLIOGRAPHY ]
     [ RELATED WEBPAGES ]

WHY ARE BIG BIRDS SUCH A BIG DEAL?

It's a fair question. After all, birds are just birds aren't they? Unlike a bigfoot or a chupacabra, they're everywhere. Hasn't just about everyone seen one, and so what if some are bigger than your normal bird? What makes that such a big deal?

Maybe it's because most scientists and skeptics think it's a big deal, or maybe because they don't want people to think it's as big a deal as some do, and they try to downplay the size, because most of them (many scientists and skeptics alike) simply believe that the largest bird living today is the ostrich, but they are still smaller than many of the reported sighting estimates.

According to http://www.australianfauna.com/ostrich.php, they can grow up to 9 feet tall and weigh close to 345 pounds. That is definitely a big bird, which brings up an interesting problem (that is not size related) and that is that ostriches don't really fly, and since most of the "big bird" sightings are of birds that are actually flying, and that most of these birds were estimated to be much bigger than ostriches.

Some of them were even reported picking up a small child and carrying them (off the ground) for a few feet.

Any bird that can carry a small child for a few feet is not just a big bird, but a huge bird. A giant bird would be a better description. It's not so much that a bird must be strong and able to lift over fifty pounds, but it must also be able to create enough air lift to not only lift itself and fly, but also lift and carry the child it has snagged. You wouldn't expect a hummingbird or bluejay or even an eagle to be able to pick a small child (or even a baby) up off the ground and carry it a few feet.

And in some of these sightings, (specifically the 1976 Texas sightings) the bird was not only described as big, but also as having a face that was "gorilla like" and/ or "horrible looking".

Big and scary looking, now that's a hell of a combination, and those are some of the reasons why big birds are such a big deal.

PTEROSAURS

More commonly known as pterodactyls, pterosaurs are winged reptiles that existed from about 220 to 65 million years ago, from the late Triassic (250 to 200 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous Period (145 to 66 million years ago). Most (if not all) paleontologists believe they. along with many other large animals at the time, went extinct 65 million years ago.

NOTES


JAN-05-2013 [SAT]
SOURCE: Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds

p. 12
"When the 'super-eagle' was reported in Alaska, a federal biologist, 
   Karen Laing, was quoted as observing that people 'don't always have 
   the sizes right, but this is different because the people in that 
   area know what eagles look like. I don't know of any bird that's 
   three times the size of an eagle. What would that be? What bird 
   occurs here that would possibly be three times the size of a Super 
   Cub.'"





JAN-22-2012 [SUN]
SOURCE: Big Bird: Modern Sightings Of Flying Monsters

p. 17
"The tracks were squared at the head, with a well-rounded impression in the
   back. They measured a whopping twelve inches long by eight inches across,
   as well as sinking an inch and a halp deep into the ground.


SOURCE: Creatures of the Outer Edge

p. 171
"The sighting, unlike most of the others, took place in the dayligt hours.
   On January 1, while the children's parens slept off the excesses of New
   Year's Eve, Tracey and Jackie were playing in the Lawson's back yard,
   which faces a plowed field five miles south of Harlingen along Ed Carey                                                                                                                                  
   Road.

p. 172
"The first three were close to the fence behind the house. The fourth print
   was twenty yards out into the field and the fifth twenty yards beyond
   that. The tracks were three-toed, eight inches across, square at the head,
   and were pressed an inch and a half into the hard ground.





JAN-08-2012 [SUN]
SOURCE: Big Bird: Modern Sightings Of Flying Monsters

p. 5
" ...'The Owlman of Mawnan' a grotesque flying 'thing' that terrorised girls
   and young women in the vicinity of Mawnan Old Church in southern
   Cornwall... "

p. 6
strange, blue, dog-like creature outside San Antonio, TX   USA

p. 7
" ...The local media, playing upon the popularity of a character from the
   children's television program Sesame Street, named the monster
   'Big Bird'... "





JAN-05-2012 [THU]
SOURCE: Creatures of the Outer Edge

p. 165
Highway 77
"'longest Main Street in the world'"
Rio Grande Valley
March, 1976

"The Rio Grande Valley is not, in short, a wild and primitive place."






JAN-01-2012
Another interesting side trip is that (after watching some documentaries and
reading up on the subject) many of the sightings are explained away as really
sightings of "turkey vultures" which can grow to a very large size, and that
size estimates have been exaggerated, maybe not intentionally, but mostly
because there was nothing around with which to really make an accurate
comparison for size.

Turkey vulture
Stellar eagle
Giant condor
California condor
Thunderbird = Golden eagle

Just how accurate is eyewitness estimations of size?
Points of reference
Monsterquest
Birdzilla about 20 minutes in:
An experiment was conducted with a 24 foot wide bird kite
2 of 6 said 100 feet wide
but 2 0f six were pretty close
one said 18 feet
and another said 27 1/2 feet
and yet the conclusion
was that people can't accurately judge
which was proven
but some were close enough
that you shouldn't just dismiss aLL estimationss offhand
to bolster your arguement that you are right
and people who believe huge birds don't exist are always wrong

Pteresaurus

Marlon Lowe approx. 60-65 pounds
at least a foot in the air
a distance of 40 feet
4 other witnesses
a wingspan of more than 15 feet
Andean Condor
largest known flying bird today
but they can't lift with their feet
grasping ability of birds
160 pounds at least
Large Raptors

Has top have at least 16-18 wingspan
to carry an 8 pound cat
AmyStrange (when I once weighed her) weighed about that
a little under to be exact

The Lost World

Humans have a fear of things that fly

Taung, South Africa
Taung Skull
Crowned Hawk/ Eagle like bird

Birds have these weird eyes
they look like they are intelligently evil

Gigantism is rare but it does happen

At this time scientist don't support the idea that giant birds exist,
improbable maybe, but not impossible in our opinion
think about this
no matter how large the odds
people still win the lottery and get royal flushes, Ace high.

John Russell





DEC-31-2011
Giant Birds

Monster Quest
2007 Season 1 Episode 4
Birdzilla

24 foot wingspan
5x the size of the average bird indigenous to Illinois.

Ken Gerhard

Illinois
Alaska
Texas

Thunderbirds
20-28 feet
Argentarvus
Terratorns
Pterasaurs

1972
Danville, IL  USA

1977
Chief AJ (John) Huffer
Lake Shelbyville, IL  USA


1836
Illinois Author
John Russell

2002
Alaska
Super Size Birds

HISTORY

TIMELINE


1976: JAN-01 [THU] > UNX > CRYPTOZOOLOGY > BIG BIRD > Rio Grande Valley, TX  USA
1976: JAN-02 [FRI] > UNX > CRYPTOZOOLOGY > BIG BIRD > Rio Grande Valley, TX  USA
1976: JAN-07 [WED] > UNX > CRYPTOZOOLOGY > BIG BIRD > Brownsville, TX  USA