Are These 10ft Wingspan ‘Thunderbirds’ Still Around Illinois? (Videos)

If you are old enough to remember the Hitchcock classic, "The Birds" from 1963 you know how terrifying that whole idea was. Now imagine that, with birds that have a 10ft wingspan.

"The Mysterious and Massive Thunderbirds of the Midwest." I went down this crazy rabbit hole over the weekend, and now when I'm outside I can't stop looking for these things! O.k., so I'm guessing I won't see one in Roscoe but these things have terrified Illinois for decades.

Native Americans documented the "thunderbird." A giant and I mean giant bird with a 10ft wingspan. Those that don't believe, will say those are just turkey vultures. But do yourself a favor and watch the one minute and thirty three second video clip of a man that was hired to find these things, and he did.

When you Google "Thunderbirds in Illinois" there is one specific story from 1977 that comes up on basically every page. PandPPodcast

The location was Lawndale, IL were a mother heard the creams of her children playing outside. 10 year old son Marion was screaming his head off as he was being chase and picked at by a Thunderbird that was TRYING to pick him up to carry him away! The Thunderbird eventually picked up the 56 pound boy and began to carry him away as the mother struck the bird as hard as she could. The bird carried the child 35 feet before dropping him, wow!

Here is the quote from the mother:

“It had a white ring around its half foot long neck. The rest of the body was very black. The bird’s bill was six inches in length and hooked at the end. The claws on the feet were arranged with three front, one in the back. Each wing, less the body, was four feet at the very least. The entire length of the bird's body, from beak to tail feather was approximately four and one half feet.” - Ruth Lowe

Do these massive birds still call Illinois home? They have been spotted in 2018 in the Northwest. But the Illinois sightings have not been that recent.