Original subtitles

Oh, did you hear that?

What the hell is that?

On this episode of "Expedition X"...

Here we go!

Heather and Phil take to the air...

Woo-hoo-hoo!

...investigating frightening reports of a legendary

avian monster known as the "Thunderbird."

There's hardly anything on the face of this earth

that scares me...

but that did.

He had his eye on you.

Yes.

The team will scale great heights...

I got you.

...uncovering remarkable evidence...

- This is huge. - What?

...as they hunt for the terror of the skies.

You see anything?

So, you guys know I'm all about the creatures.

- We know, Phil. - Yeah.

Try being stuck in a car with him for eight hours.

"Let me tell you about Spain's lesser-spotted fire lizard."

Heather, how many times did I tell you on that drive?

It is a fire salamander, not a lizard.

- Oh, boy. - She never listens.

Oh, boy.

But I got something that you definitely are gonna

want to listen to now, because I came across some very

interesting, new audio evidence that some people are linking

to an ancient Native American myth.

So this is recorded on this woman's porch cam,

and you're gonna hear some normal bird songs.

But what you want to pay attention to is this strange,

low-pitched sound combined with this descending whistle

at the end of the clip.

You're also gonna hear the homeowner react,

because she's never heard anything like this before.

OK.

So that's a cardinal. But that...

Hm.

That low sound, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's looking around, trying to figure out what it is.

Dude, that's, like, not kids messing around.

What is that?

That's, like, working the dogs up.

Whoa.

- What is that? - I gotta say, I've never heard

a bird call like this before.

Now, this particular recording was captured in

the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania.

And in this region, over the last few years,

there's been a spate of sightings of a very large,

unidentified bird of prey that's led many people in the region

to suspect, including this woman, that it could

be a Thunderbird.

You mean the giant bird from Native American folklore?

That's the one.

It supposedly has a 30-foot wingspan, resembles a giant

eagle, and can command the storms.

It is a potent mythical being.

I am very familiar with this story.

I actually went looking for the Thunderbird many years ago

in Alaska, because there had been a whole raft of sightings

there as well.

And I've always associated this creature with that region

in the Pacific Northwest in general.

But this clip and these other encounters you mentioned are

coming out of a different region entirely.

And so it seems that the Thunderbird may be

kicking up a storm over the skies of Pennsylvania.

For thousands of years, generations of Native Americans

have shared stories of a massive, winged creature known

as the "Thunderbird."

The specifics vary, but some of

its supernatural aspects are universal.

It's said to create thunder with the flapping of its wings

and casts lightning from its eyes.

Some indigenous people see the powerful Thunderbird

as a protective spirit that can divert a storm

or heal sickness.

Others say the creature is an omen of war and danger.

But for some, the Thunderbird is much more

than a myth. It's a real-life monster.

In 1890, an article in Arizona's "Tombstone Epitaph"

describes two ranchers shooting and killing a mysterious bird

in the Sonoran Desert.

The beast is described as having a wingspan of 160 feet.

Illinois, July 25th, 1977.

Ten-year-old Marlon Lowe is playing with friends when

something casts a giant shadow over his backyard.

Within seconds, a massive bird snatches Marlon in its talons,

carrying the boy 35 feet through the air.

As it attempts to fly off, the boy's mother, Ruth,

wages a tug-of-war with the beast

until it relents and lets him go.

In 2021, a Pennsylvania woman reports spotting a bird

of unimaginable size perched atop the chimney

of an office building.

As she tries to photograph the colossal creature,

it swoops down at her, talons extended.

She barely makes it into the building to escape.

When authorities attempt to verify the woman's claims,

they discover several bricks

have been torn from the chimney.

Now, a recent surge in sightings points to a hot-spot

of supposed Thunderbird activity in the Allegheny Mountains

along Pennsylvania's Chestnut Ridge.

Locals describe aggressive birds with wingspans

up to 10 times the size of a bald eagle.

Ranchers in the area have reported

livestock disappearing without a trace.

And most shocking of all, last month, a trucker claims

his rig was almost lifted off the ground by one of these

monster birds.

But what's really going on here?

Has the legendary Thunderbird truly taken flight

in Western Pennsylvania?

Just to be clear, I am not saying there is a giant

monster bird out there firing lightning bolts from its eyes.

- That's what I heard you say. - Uh-huh.

But there definitely could be a large avian predator that has

yet to be documented.

I mean, just a couple years ago, there was

a Steller's sea eagle found in Texas.

This is a massive bird, seven to eight-foot wingspan

that is normally found in Northeastern Asia,

6,000 miles away. So, anything's possible.

I've always been fascinated by this story, partially because

the Thunderbird mythology is so rich, but also because

you do have these people stepping forward

claiming to see a flying, unidentified something.

So, what do you think? Real deal or for the birds?

I get how it could sound far-fetched that there's

a Thunderbird in Pennsylvania, but the eyewitness reports are

real, that audio is real, and people are

seeing something.

So we got to go in with an open mind.

And we've investigated a lot of land-based cryptids, so this

time investigating one that's in the air,

it's gonna be fascinating.

And it's not going to be easy,

and I don't know how we're gonna do it,

but I'm definitely in.

All right, sounds like we're all agreed.

The mission is to get to Pennsylvania.

Start by interviewing this trucker who claims his rig was

attacked from the skies. Is it a Thunderbird?

Is it misidentification? Is it an unknown species?

See if you can get a bird's-eye view of the truth.

- Ka-kaw! - What was that?

It's Thunderbird for "Hell, yeah."

Oh, sorry, I don't speak Thunderbird.

The flight from New York to Pittsburgh is

just over an hour.

The team then hits the road for a two-hour drive along Route 30

to the area where our witness had his shocking encounter.

Looks like there's our guy.

All right.

Hey, Fred.

Veteran and trucker Fred Stull

has driven America's highways for decades.

He thought he'd seen it all, until he recently crossed paths

with something beyond belief.

So this is Highway 30.

It was around here that you saw whatever you saw.

Yeah, but this is, like, the first time I've ever talked

publicly about it.

Can you tell us what happened to you?

Well, it was about 4 o'clock in the morning.

Just started work.

Going up Route 30 over the mountain.

I was coming up the hill.

My lights were shining up in the air.

This enormous bird thing come out of the southeast.

I literally thought it was gonna take

the top of my truck off.

How big was this thing?

I'd say the wingspan was 60 to 80 feet.

- 60 to 80 feet? - At least.

The width of the wing literally covered my whole tractor.

I mean, you gotta understand how for someone hearing that,

that sounds kind of unbelievable.

I really don't care what people think.

- Mm-hmm. - I've seen what I've seen.

What'd you do after you saw this thing?

I got out of there as fast as I could.

I didn't care where it went.

I did not want to see it again.

- So this thing scared you? - Yes, it did.

Believe me, I've seen a lot of stuff, running up and down

these roads for 25 years and being in the military.

And there's hardly anything on the face of this earth

that scares me, but that did.

So in that moment, what did you think it was?

I had no idea.

First place I was able to pull over, I called my wife.

She says, "You've seen what they call the Thunderbird."

And I asked her, I said, "What is it?"

You know, I'd never heard of it.

I guess it's some kind of mythical legend, but...

it's not mythical. It's real.

Have you heard of anyone else seeing something like it?

I've heard rumors where guys have 1,200-pound cows

come up missing. - Wow.

Just disappeared.

No tracks around, and nothing drug it out.

So it's something huge had to pick it up.

- Maybe a Thunderbird. - That's what I would say.

Where do you think we should focus our search if we want

to try to get eyes on it ourselves?

I would start where Route 30 crosses Chestnut Ridge

and Laurel Ridge after it.

Between them two ridges, it's nothing but forest,

mountains and that, and nobody knows

what's up in the woods.

Fred, thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you so much.

Be real careful and take very good precautions.

- Yes, sir. - You got it.

Fred's given us a lot of ground to cover.

Highway 30 runs through 15 miles of wilderness between

Laurel Ridge, where Fred had his experience,

and Chestnut Ridge, where our video of that eerie

bird call was captured.

If we're gonna cover the territory of a giant bird,

we had a suitably giant idea. Why not fly like one?

Gliders don't use engines.

They ride the same thermal currents that large birds

of prey like hawks and eagles use.

Gliders are also almost completely silent, making them

the perfect perch to spot birds, monstrous or otherwise,

in action.

All right, Heather.

- See you up there. - All right, have fun.

Heather and I will launch separately, being towed

by a plane to 4,000 feet before being released.

Closed.

Since we'll be constantly on the lookout for giant nests

and anything else unusual that could point to a Thunderbird,

we're each joined in the cockpit by an experienced

glider pilot.

They'll stay focused on keeping us flying,

while we scan our surroundings.

If we spot anything out of the ordinary, we'll log the GPS

coordinates for a follow-up.

Here we go!

Hell yeah!

We're in the air.

This is incredible.

Look at this view!

Hey, Phil, look to your left.

Oh, hey. Good to see you.

What are you doing up here?

Oh, just hanging out.

OK. Ready?

- . - All right, Heather.

We're gonna be released. Ready?

Copy. I got eyes on you.

3, 2, 1.

Woo-hoo-hoo!

Oh, and we're away.

Wow!

Ah!

Oh, my God.

There we go.

There we go, just us in the air, harnessing that

power of the thermals.

If you are a large bird, it takes an enormous amount

of energy to fly.

You would be doing exactly what we are doing right now.

See that road down there?

It's got to be Highway 30,

cut right through Chestnut Ridge.

See that other set of ridges off in the distance?

That's got to be Laurel.

Well, you want to take Laurel, and I'll take Chestnut?

Let's do it.

Copy that.

See that ridge over to the left with that road

cutting through? - Yep.

Is there a way we could do a little turn?

Sure.

Now, remember what we're looking for.

Anything down below, large stick structures

at the top of the trees, that could indicate a nest.

Anything above us that is the same size or bigger.

Copy that. I got my eyes peeled.

The American bald eagle has the largest bird nest

in the entire world, building huge, typically

nine feet wide, 12 feet tall, stick structures.

But if a Thunderbird is really the largest thing in the skies,

as the stories say, that means its nest would be even bigger.

So, even though we're a mile high right now, we should be

able to see a nest from the sky.

We can see for miles.

Our wingspan is roughly 55 feet.

Our witness told us that the Thunderbird that he saw had

a wingspan of 80 feet.

So, I'm keeping my eyes out for anything as large as a glider.

Oh, I got something.

To the right!

Straight ahead.

I've got an interesting stick structure I'm seeing

down below on top of a tree.

Heather, I think I see our first potential nest.

Nice.

I'm gonna mark a GPS point.

Copy that.

Quarter mile east of where we are right now.

We got something.

That is promising. We're in the right spot.

After another hour of searching, the nest I spotted

seems to be our most promising lead.

So, we turn back and start our descent.

All right, Heather, I'll head in first.

Copy that. I got eyes on you.

Woo-wee!

Touchdown.

Coming in for the landing.

All right, thank you.

- Nicely done, Glen. - How about that?

- Amazing. - That was incredible,

to be riding those thermals.

- I know. - I guess we know

where we're heading next. - Yeah, we do.

The coordinates I marked fall on the foothills

of Laurel Ridge, just six miles north of where Fred had

his strange encounter.

OK.

With the exception of owls, all birds of prey

hunt during the day. - This way.

All right.

The largest, like eagles, can hunt in an area

up to 15 square miles.

The best chance we have of finding a large, avian predator

is when it's nesting at night.

Hey, it's getting dark.

How are we looking on GPS?

Should be straight ahead of us.

OK.

- Hey. - Yeah?

We are 100 yards from that possible structure you saw.

Oh, yeah, we're almost right on top of it.

If there is something there, I don't want to scare it away.

So before we get any closer, there is a new tool

I want to use. - OK.

So, this is a ZEISS thermal scope.

Your average thermal camera can only see maybe 50, 100 feet

in front of you. This can see up to a mile.

- Cool. - So near and far,

if there's something flying around or up

in the trees, this thing will get it.

Here's hoping.

Do you see anything?

You ready to move in?

Yeah.

Let's go nice and slow.

It's got to be right in front of us.

Oh, got something.

What?

It is a tangle of branches up there.

It's gotta be it.

You think that's what you saw from the glider?

I think so. It's glowing.

- It's glowing? - It's glowing warm.

Which, if that's a nest,

something could be incubating in there.

Should we get closer?

Yeah.

Quietly.

No.

Oh.

It's a big, dead tree.

Oh, no. False lead?

Well, marking GPS from 4,000 feet isn't exact,

so what I saw could still be around here.

OK, but that's clearly not holding something the size

of a Thunderbird.

Oh, my God.

There's something up there.

Do you see anything?

- Ahh! - What the--?

Something just flew off there.

Let's go.

Where did it go?

Do you see anything?

I got nothing. I think I lost it.

Whatever it was, it was sizable.

- And in the treetops. - Yes.

Let's look around and see if we can find any evidence.

All right, OK.

- Spread out a little bit? - Yeah.

OK, I'll take left.

Oh, what is this?

This is huge.

Oh, my God.

Heather, get over here.

- What? - Look.

I think this is a bird pellet.

Look above. See that branch?

This is exactly what you would expect

with a large bird of prey.

They catch their food.

They sit on a horizontal branch and puke out

the bones and the fur.

And look what we got in here.

You can see the bones protruding through it.

- That is a sizable prey. - I've seen an owl pellet.

- That looks way larger. - Yes, it's huge!

I've never seen a pellet that big.

If that's the biggest pellet you've ever seen, what size

bird are we talking about? - Exactly.

It must be massive.

I mean, there are bald eagles here, potentially

a golden eagle, so maybe something like that.

But the beauty of pellets is that you can reconstruct

those bones and figure out what the prey was.

Are you using "beauty" and "puke" in the same sentence?

Hey, when it comes to the data we can get from this thing,

absolutely. - OK.

Whoa, it still feels wet.

If it's still wet, that means it's fresh, right?

I'm gonna bag it up.

It's a great find.

Before we go, I'm thinking if we put a camera trap on this

tree angled up, we may be able to catch whatever comes back

to this branch. - Good idea.

Here, you just angle it up.

Yeah, it's perfect.

It looks good.

- OK, let's get moving. - OK.

Heather and I continue searching for evidence,

but it becomes clear that whatever we were chasing has

already flown the nest.

The next morning, we check in with Josh to update him

on our investigation so far.

Well, well, if it isn't my avian associates.

- Hey, Gates. - How's it going out there?

- Or should I say up there? - It's going great.

We found the biggest bird regurgitation pellets I have

ever seen. - Phil, God bless you.

You are the only man I know that could get this excited

about bird vomit.

- He really is excited. - I am.

So I reached out to a local bird expert.

Her name is Katie Fallon, and she studied how eagles,

hawks, and falcons hunt prey.

I want to use that know-how to inform our next investigation.

OK, well, while you're checking out your puke nugget,

I got another witness for you, an Army veteran named

Aaron Schachte, who claims to have had multiple close calls

with this terrifying creature and thinks he knows where

to find it. - Amazing.

I would love to meet him.

All right, guys, well, get to it.

The early bird catches the worm.

- Bye, Gates. - See ya.

I'm heading to Chestnut Ridge, where the eerie recording

of the supposed Thunderbird was made, to meet with a witness

who may have a lead on its whereabouts.

Aaron Schachte has called Pennsylvania home for decades,

but lately, he suspects he's been sharing his backyard

with a monster from the skies.

So we're here looking for the Thunderbird,

and I understand you've seen it a couple of times.

- Yes, I have. - Walk me through that.

The first time I seen it, it was later afternoon.

I just got done cutting this here field.

And I'm looking out there at the end of that field,

and I see a tree stump.

And I'm wondering, "How is there a tree stump in the middle

of my field? I just cut this."

So I start walking up on it, and I got maybe 40-some feet

away from it.

And I'm looking at it, and I'm thinking, "It doesn't

look like a tree stump anymore. That's a bird."

It was like this, like a vampire.

Then it pops its head up, and it's looking at me, mad.

Like, "Why are you here?

You're invading my territory."

And it spreads its wings.

It leans into the breeze like a kite, and it goes one flap.

It's up in the air.

It starts coming right at me. I'm like, "Jeez."

So I duck to get out of its way.

Do you feel like he was charging you?

Yes. He looked very mad

when he was looking at me.

- This was his territory? - This is his yard.

So there was no way he was another large bird?

No-- we know all the birds out here.

We know the turkey buzzards, the eagles, hawks.

This was nothing like that, not even in the same category.

You're talking miniature, and I'm talking monster.

It went up into the air.

And right over on this side, there was turkey buzzards.

They were doing circles, and it went up there with them,

and it made them look like this big compared to my hand.

That's how big he was.

You think you were looking at a Thunderbird?

I never heard of a Thunderbird before.

I don't know what it was.

I head to neighboring West Virginia to visit

the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia.

- Hey, Katie. - Hey, Phil.

I'm just about to feed the birds.

Would you like to help?

I would love to.

Katie Fallon is a birds of prey specialist with

an encyclopedic knowledge of the region's biggest

avian predators.

Here's some fish.

Look at those talons.

I'm hoping she can shed light on what we've been chasing.

Woo-hoo-hoo!

Wow, you are beautiful.

So we're looking into reports of something absolutely massive

that has been seen flying around here.

Some people are saying it's Thunderbird,

and that's why I came to you.

Tell me about the big birds

that could be flying around here.

The giant birds flying around here would be bald eagles,

golden eagles, great horned owls, turkey vultures.

Biggest of those birds has about a six-foot wingspan.

It's interesting because what people are describing,

they say 60 to 80-foot wingspan.

It's very difficult to judge the size of a bird in flight.

Birds are often described as being a lot bigger

than they actually are.

I'd like to play for you an audio recording

that we were sent. - OK.

Because I'm still trying to figure out what it is that

this person was hearing.

I'm not sure what that is.

That's kind of how I felt about it, too.

I could not identify that noise.

There's one more thing I want to show you.

Something that we found on the ground that looked

suspiciously like a pellet.

It does look like a pellet.

- There's bones. - Some of the fur.

- Fur. - Look at the size.

There's my hand for comparison.

I mean, it's a large pellet.

It could be a great horned owl.

Really? They get that big?

Well, possibly, I mean, if a great horned owl

ate something that's very big,

potentially large prey.

But there's always the chance that something from

somewhere else could have shown up.

I mean, a Steller's sea eagle was here in the U.S.

No one could really explain how it got here,

but it's a massive bird.

If you were one of these birds,

where would you be hiding?

I would be probably on a rocky outcrop somewhere where there's

a lot of wind, because a bird of any large size is going

to need a lot of wind to help them fly.

So cliffs and wind?

Yes, but you need to be careful if you're going to be

around a predatory bird's nest.

A lot of raptors are territorial around their nest sites,

and they will fly at people and even graze

their heads with their talons and cause an abrasion.

These are birds not to be messed with.

You got it.

But that's not the only time you saw this thing.

No, the second time I seen it,

I came out, and I was down on my barn.

I'm up 18 feet in the air, doing some hammering,

and all of a sudden, I'm in the shade.

So, I look up.

Another big bird is doing laps around me.

I was the center of the circle.

He had his eye on you.

Yes. "I'm prey."

That's what I was thinking.

You think it was the same bird that you saw previously?

It looked like it. It was the same size.

And it...

...glid off through the cow pasture and went down towards

Chestnut Ridge, I'm thinking,

"Good, thank goodness."

God bless America.

As you can see, the Thunderbird should be

showing up now. There was just a big hunk...

- Right? - ...of lightning behind you.

I rendezvous with Phil, and we follow Aaron's

directions into the nearby Chestnut Ridge wilderness

to begin our investigation.

Using a topographical map, Phil has pinpointed a remote

cliff face that should be

an ideal vantage point above the tree line.

- See that up there? - Yeah.

I think we found our cliffs.

Now we just got to go up. I think up through here.

Look at this place.

Wow. It goes straight up.

Hey, if this thing exists, whatever it is, up on one

of those ledges could be our best chance to find it.

- Let's get harnessed up? - Yeah.

OK.

Ready to do this? You got me?

Let's hope so.

That's the confidence I need when I'm climbing

a 100-foot cliff. - You got this.

OK. I'll bring a rope up,

drop down the safety line, and see what

we find up there. - Go for it.

Climb on.

OK.

All right.

So every single ledge I get to is a potential nesting spot.

So, I do inspect for anything

that may be living here

or may have lived here in the past.

This one looked pretty empty.

So, gotta keep going up.

- OK, climbing. - Climb on.

- Heather. - Yeah?

I think...

- I see a feather up here. - No way!

Yes, it's over on this ledge to my right.

How big?

I mean, it's no songbird.

Something big might be nesting up here, Heather.

OK.

I'm gonna try to swing over and get to it.

- I got to get eyes on it. - Copy that.

- All right, you got me? - Got you.

One...

two,

three.

- Oh [bleep], oh. - Phil!

Oh [bleep], oh! Whoa!

Oh, my God.

- Oh. - Are you OK?

I'm OK. Thanks for catching me there.

I got you.

- You're heavy, but I got you. - OK.

I don't think I can get to it.

But I should film with the GoPro, pick up as many

details on it as possible.

We can look at the video and try to identify what

species was up here. - Copy that.

OK. I got something.

- Hopefully, it's enough. - OK.

All right. Time to finish this climb.

Oh...

There was a moment there

where I didn't think I would make it.

Let's get the bag up, then let's get you up.

- Deal? - Deal.

- Bag's ready. - OK.

All right, Heather, you got to come up quick.

- We're losing light. - Climbing.

- How we doing, Heather? - Great.

All right, Heather. Almost there.

- You got it? - Yeah.

OK.

Keep going.

All right. Nicely done.

Wow. Look at that view.

- It's incredible. - Absolutely.

This is our spot.

After that climb, it better be.

Let's get set up.

If there are any so-called Thunderbirds in the area,

we're hoping to lure them to us before they nest for the night

by using our game caller.

I've loaded it with the sounds of two birds

that could help us tonight. One is wild turkey

because it could be prey, and the other is

great horned owl because that could be perceived

as competition.

So, got the calls loaded up on the FOXPRO.

I've got a highly sensitive, omnidirectional microphone,

which is attached to my phone,

and a bird-identifying software.

This will identify all the known birds around here,

from a whip-poor-will to a warbler.

So if I hear something that it doesn't know...

Then, yeah, we'll have that documented, too.

Awesome.

I'm setting it to record now.

We'll see what it picks up.

First up, turkey dinner.

All right, night-vision binoculars

on and recording.

Got the thermal scope going.

- Got anything, Heather? - Nada.

Next up, the great horned owl.

Jesus, oh my God.

- That was the owl too? - Yeah.

They make some crazy noises.

Anything flying in over the treetops?

I don't see anything yet.

Yeah, me neither.

Oh, did you hear that?

Did you hear that?

I heard that.

That was a big branch over there.

Maybe something landed.

- Can you see it? - I don't see anything.

Me neither.

But that sounded right along the edge of the rocks here.

Yes.

What the hell is that?

Capturing an actual photograph of the Thunderbird would

make history.

And, amazingly, one such photo is said to exist.

The first mention of a picture of the bird comes in a 1963

magazine article by Jack Pearl.

He describes a photo from an 1890 edition of Arizona's

"Tombstone Epitaph" newspaper, featuring six cowboys standing

below the outstretched wings

of a massive bird the size of a barn,

nailed to the wall.

But there is also an equally massive problem.

When Thunderbird sleuths searched the "Epitaph's"

archives, they found the story,

but there was no associated image.

So did the journalist make the photo up?

Well, believers say "No," and they're still scouring

Old West archives for that picture-perfect proof.

But for now, at least, finding the photograph remains

as elusive as finding the Thunderbird itself.

- What is that? - I don't know.

Is it recording?

It's recorded, but it's not identified.

- Didn't identify it? - No.

OK. That sounded big.

Yeah.

Oh, over there, to the right.

What do you see?

Something just came in behind the tree over there.

I couldn't tell if it was flying, but that was right where

we heard that noise before.

I gotta get over there, go check it out.

I'll stay up here and watch your back.

OK.

Keep your eyes to the sky.

It's really thick in here.

Yeah, just follow the cliff.

Judging by what I saw on the thermal,

whatever we've been hearing should be right around here.

That was really unusual.

Not seeing anything.

But whatever it was that made that noise was close.

OK, we're getting close.

Let's see what's around this corner.

Oh, look at that.

Right here, look.

Oh, my God.

Wow!

Heather, I got a nest.

Follow the cliffside. And also, grab my phone.

We gotta take some photos of this.

Copy that. I'm on my way.

Absolutely amazing.

There he is.

Phil.

Yeah.

Check this out.

Look.

What!

Yeah. I think...

this used to be an active nest, and it is...

- Huge. - Yes!

I don't see any feathers, do you?

No.

And I'm also not seeing bird droppings.

That really tells me this hasn't been active for a while.

But whatever lived here had to have been big.

What could have lived here?

I don't know.

I've never seen anything like this.

You have my phone?

- Yeah. - OK.

Phil and Heather thoroughly documented and analyzed

the gigantic nest, careful not to disturb it in case it was

still in use, whether by a bird that's known or perhaps a bird

that's monstrous.

The nest measured two feet tall and a little over nine feet

wide, although one side was partially destroyed, so it

could have originally been even larger.

It was also positioned at the very edge of the ridge,

giving a vantage for attack.

If you're a big bird here and you need to take off,

this is your launching point, riding that updraft

along the cliff.

But was this really the home of a Thunderbird?

The dark gray feather

Phil found on his climb up the cliff face matches that

of the wing of a bald eagle.

The nest's size also appears to match one that could belong

to a mating pair of bald eagles.

But the sound that Heather and Phil heard on the cliff top

was most certainly from something else.

When Phil's identification app failed to recognize it,

he sent the clip to Katie at the Avian Conservation Center.

She identified this as the call of a barred owl.

Specifically, one that was feeling threatened.

Was the owl alarmed by the calls Phil was playing?

Or by something bigger?

Look.

Because the team did find a piece of evidence that

indicated a much larger predator is stalking

these skies-- the huge regurgitation pellet.

Phil analyzed the pellet back at HQ and made

an astonishing discovery.

It contained the digested bones of an adult cat.

So, is the Thunderbird flying high in the skies

of Pennsylvania?

Well, if the feather and nest that the team found do belong

to a bald eagle, those birds have a wingspan of

up to 7 and a half feet,

a huge size that could perhaps be misidentified

as monstrous.

As for the pellet, the local great horned owl does

attack cats.

It's not known to eat them whole,

but it could certainly consume one.

Putting these facts together, it seems unlikely that

the Thunderbird is casting a shadow over

the Allegheny Mountains.

Although, try telling that to our terrified eyewitnesses.

You're talking miniature, and I'm talking monster.

But our official recommendation, to borrow

a phrase, "don't count your Thunderbirds before they hatch."