Some time ago, when I was indexing our 1940's era newspapers, I ran across several articles , in a variety of reliable sources, of reports of giant birds cruising the skies over southern Illinois. Terrified people who sighted the giant winged behemoths described the birds as being as large as small airplanes with wingspans of 20 to 40 feet. One family described a thunderbird attempting to make off with a young boy as its prey, and in another source, Strange Encounters, it details a horrified witness describing the monster roosting in a tree with the horrid boney remains of its meal laying underneath. When the bird took flight, its wingspan darkened the sky.

Indian tribes before the coming of the white man had legends of the birds in their mythology. Could the descendants of these monsters still remain?

Here's more:


http://sped2work.tripod.com/thunderbirds.html

Illinois thunderbirds.

I hate Illinois thunderbirds.

Don't annoy these birds. They may go and get help from their parents.