The Thunderbird

The Thunderbird is a bird cryptid said to be at large in Pennsylvania and the Central States. It is a giant bird which exceeds the largest scientifically known wingspan - the Wandering Albatross has a wingspan of 13 ft whilst the Thunderbird is said to exceed 15 ft sometimes 20ft. It is sighted often and is always described as having the same distinctive colour - black or dark brown with a white marking around it's neck, hawk-like in appearence.

On July 30, 1977 John Huffer, an ex-marine and photographer, took a 100 foot roll of color film of two birds taking off from a tree in an inlet of Lake Shelbyville. I have tried to find the film but the only one I could find was no longer avaliable. I did find this still.

The film is said to be of good quality and has experts stumped.

As a concept design, this already has a lot of it's on game mythology. Rocs and other large birds are used time and time again in games along with the more god-like birds (see Quetzalcoatl) which I personally remember appearing in Final Fantays VIII as a Guardian Force. Mixing up the various legend of big bird, mythical birds (Garuda perhaps?) and my own imaginings culd make for some interesting sketches.