Cryptid Compendium: Pennsylvania Thunderbird
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The next in our series on unexplained beings in Pennsylvania influenced by Indigenous beliefs: The Pennsylvania Thunderbird!
The Pennsylvania Thunderbird lives in the Endless Mountains region of northeastern Pennsylvania, particularly the Loyalsock State Forest and the remote river gorges along the Susquehanna River’s North Branch. The name was adopted by early settlers due to the creature’s immense size and ability to generate powerful winds and booming sounds, often mistaken for thunderstorms, as it flew in low.
Appearance and Behavior
The Pennsylvania Thunderbird is described as having a wingspan between ten and twenty feet across with dark, dusty brown or black feathers. It has a large, powerful beak and large, dark eyes.
It is often mistaken for a massive shadow passing overhead. Its call is a deafening, deep croak or shriek, often accompanied by the sound of its wings, described as a rhythmic whooshing and booming sound, like the cracking of a bullwhip. This is followed by distant thunder, giving the creature its name.
Reports of its behavior liken it to a bird of prey, particularly in terms of its hunting behavior. Unlike typical birds of prey, however, the Thunderbird is said to target large game and livestock. Reports from the 19th and early 20th centuries describe it taking sheep and calves from open fields, leaving behind deep talon marks in the earth. Modern sightings sometimes involve them carrying off large fish from the Susquehanna River.
Some people believe that reported Thunderbirds are actually giant eagles or condors flying into areas they do not usually inhabit. Others who think of them as cryptids see them as either flesh-and-blood beings or interdimensional beings.
Indigenous Oral Tradition
The Iroquois and Delaware both have oral tradition surrounding Thunderbirds. The Iroquois tell stories of a powerful “Storm Bird” or “Great Bird of Prey,” which they called the Skek-a-goi. This spirit being was believed to control the upper atmosphere, sometimes bringing necessary rain and sometimes unleashing destructive storms as a sign of divine anger or warning.
Several Indigenous traditions held that the appearance of Thunderbirds was a sign of impending major change, typically not of the positive type. It was said to foreshadow war, a great famine, or a significant shift in the balance of the natural world. Thus, Indigenous peoples held a deep respect for them.
Historical Sightings
Early sightings of Thunderbirds often coincided with periods of severe weather or unexplained livestock disappearances. A well-known account from the 1890s came from a surveyor near the Wyoming County border. He reported seeing a massive, dark bird perched on a high, remote cliff, whose shadow alone was large enough to completely engulf the forest below.
As it took flight, he claimed the sudden downdraft of its wings was powerful enough to scatter his paper maps and almost knocked him off the ridge.
During the 1940s, newspaper reports from the Muncy Valley area described a series of bizarre incidents where calves and young pigs disappeared without a trace. The only evidence left were three-toed tracks similar to a bird, but far too large to be from any known species. One farmer claimed to have briefly seen a gigantic bird ascend from his field with a young sheep clutched in its talons.
A widely reported incident from the 1970s involved a motorist on a remote road who claimed to have seen a Thunderbird carrying something large and dark in its grasp as it flew low overhead. The huge shadow and sonic boom caused the driver to briefly lose control, his ears ringing for several hours.
In 1977, one of most famous Thunderbird sightings occurred, though not in Pennsylvania. A woman in Lawndale, Illinois, heard her 10-year-old son screaming. When she ran outside to check on him, she saw him being chased by two large birds. One of them grabbed the boy and carried him 35 feet in its talons before the mother was able to scare them away. She described the attacking birds as black with a white ring around their necks, six-inch hooked beaks, and wings that were each at least four feet in length (Tackett, 2014).
Modern Sightings
Thunderbird sightings have continued through modern times. In 2006, a couple driving on the remote Route 6 near Potter County claimed that a massive, dark shadow briefly eclipsed their SUV. They both looked up in time to see the creature heading into low clouds. They estimated the wingspan as being wider than the road lane.
In 2012, two young girls camping with their families in Chapman Township reported a bird with a 14-foot wingspan and no feathers on its head.
In 2019, group of hikers in Loyalsock State Forest claimed their recreational drone was struck and destroyed by something they did not see. The drone footage, recovered from the damaged unit, showed a brief and unclear clip of a massive, dark object suddenly filling the frame before the feed cut out. Some speculated that this was a Thunderbird that saw the small drone as an aerial intruder or prey.
A woman pulling into a parking lot in Montgomery Township in 2021 reported something flying over her car that was so large she thought it was a small plane about to crash. When it passed in front of her car, she realized that it was a bird.
Current sightings continue mostly near the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, often near remote hunting camps or high-altitude reservoirs. They usually involve reports of inexplicable high-wind gusts on clear days, the discovery of unusually large feathers, and the distinct sound of thunder when there are no thunderstorms in the area.
Here’s a video if you’re interested in learning more:
and another that shows an investigation from 2021:
Coming Up Next
Next in Field Notes from the Beyond: Another installment of Defining the Paranormal.
This Month on Beyond the Human: La Santa Muerte
Next Month on Beyond the Human: Exorcism
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