Overview
In the traditions of many Indigenous peoples of North America, from the Pacific Northwest Coast to the Great Lakes and the Plains, the thunderbird is a powerful supernatural being. Its wingbeats make thunder and its eyes flash lightning. It is often seen as a protector deserving respect. Those traditions are sacred to many nations and are not the subject of this page.
In cryptozoology, 'thunderbird' is used loosely for reports of enormous, unknown birds or flying creatures in North America. Some witnesses describe something like a giant condor or vulture; others describe a featherless, pterosaur-like animal. The name is borrowed, and the reports have little to do with the original traditions.
Famous threads include an 1890 Arizona newspaper story about cowboys killing a giant flying creature, and a supposed photograph of a giant bird from the late-1800s American West that is said to have been lost. The best-documented modern case came in Lawndale, Illinois, in 1977, when a mother said a large bird lifted her ten-year-old son off the ground. Scientists say known birds, sometimes misjudged in size, explain the sightings. Some scholars also suggest that fossils of giant extinct birds or pterosaurs may have inspired older stories.
Timeline
- 1673Jacques Marquette records the painted Piasa bird on cliffs near Alton, Illinois.
- 1890A Tombstone, Arizona, paper prints a story about cowboys killing a giant flying creature.
- April 10, 1948Three witnesses in Overland, Missouri, report a bird the size of a plane.
- 1948A father and son near Alton, Illinois, report a bird as big as a small airplane.
- July 25, 1977Marlon Lowe is reportedly lifted by a large bird in Lawndale, Illinois.
- 2001Rural Pennsylvania reports of a huge bird.
Reported sightings
Bluffs near Alton, Illinois
1673 On the record
French Jesuit explorer Jacques Marquette recorded a large painting of a monstrous creature on the limestone cliffs along the Mississippi. Known as the Piasa bird, the original image was destroyed by weather and vandalism and was later recreated from historical sketches. It is often mentioned alongside thunderbird lore, though it is a separate tradition.
Source: atlasobscura.comNear Tombstone, Arizona
April 1890 Told story
The Tombstone Epitaph printed a story about two cowboys who said they killed a giant flying creature with smooth skin, bat-like featherless wings and an alligator-like head, measuring 160 feet across. Historians note that frontier newspapers often printed tall tales, and the story is widely regarded as invented. It later fed the legend of a 'lost thunderbird photo'.
Source: ebsco.comOverland, Missouri
April 10, 1948 On the record
Three witnesses said they saw a bird the size of a plane flying overhead. It did not interact with them. The report was part of a cluster of big-bird sightings around St. Louis and the Alton area that year.
Source: ebsco.comAlton, Illinois
1948 On the record
A father and son said they saw a giant bird with a body as big as a Piper Cub airplane. The sighting came soon after the Overland report and added to the region's reputation for huge birds.
Source: ebsco.comLawndale, Logan County, Illinois
July 25, 1977 On the record
Ten-year-old Marlon Lowe was playing outside when two large birds swooped in. One grabbed the 56-pound boy and lifted him, carrying him about 35 feet before his mother, Ruth Lowe, intervened and drove it off. She described a black bird with a white ring around a long neck, a hooked beak about six inches long, and a large wingspan. Police dismissed the account. Marlon was teased at school, and someone left dead pigeons on the family porch.
Source: atlasobscura.comRural Pennsylvania
2001 Told story
Reports of a very large bird came from rural Pennsylvania. Cryptozoologists suggested they may have been misidentified condors, which have wingspans of up to about ten feet.
Source: ebsco.comEvidence
The 'lost' thunderbird photo Unexplained
An alleged late-1800s photograph of a giant bird from the American West, said to have been lost. No copy has been found.
Tombstone Epitaph story (1890) Proven hoax
A frontier newspaper tale of a 160-foot flying creature; regarded by scholars as fiction.
Lawndale incident (1977) Unexplained
Several witnesses reported large birds; no photos or physical evidence.
What each side says
What witnesses and researchers report
The Lawndale family stuck to their story despite ridicule, and accounts say other boys were chased by the birds the same evening. Witnesses consistently describe birds far bigger than anything they had seen before.
Researchers ask what became of the alleged lost photograph, and whether large birds such as condors once ranged more widely than we think.
What skeptics and scientists suggest
Turkey vultures live in Illinois and look large overhead, though they do not hunt live prey. A bird lifting a 56-pound child is beyond what any known North American bird can do.
The 1890 story is regarded as a newspaper tall tale. Scholars such as Adrienne Mayor suggest that some older giant-bird stories may come from people finding fossils of extinct birds or pterosaurs.
Open questions
- Did the 'thunderbird photo' ever exist?
- What kind of bird did the Lowe family see in 1977?
Visiting
Where: Alton, Illinois, home of the recreated Piasa bird painting; Lawndale, Logan County, Illinois.
Access: Lawndale is a small private community; there is no marked site.
Did you know?
- The Piasa bird was first described by Jacques Marquette in 1673.
- The thunderbird appears on many Northwest Coast totem poles.
- The 1890 Tombstone story claimed a wingspan of 160 feet and a length of 92 feet.