Thunderbird- Huge Flying Creature Sighting Reported In The Greensburg, PA Area Again
May 23, 2021
From Researcher: Stan Gordon
A person was stopped at the red light at the corner of Otterman and Maple in downtown Greensburg, Pennsylvania on the afternoon of May 23, 2021. That is when the witness noticed something unusual in the sky. She thought at first that it was a turkey vulture, but as it flew closer in her direction, she realized how unusual this creature was.
The witness contacted me within the hour after her observation and stated, “I was stunned at what I saw”. The flying creature was described as huge, with a wingspan estimated to be about two car lengths long.
The observer mentioned that even though it was high in the sky, it was still huge. The flying behemoth was described as all black in color. It had a defined elongated head with a sharp pointed beak, and also a pointed protuberance at the back of the head.
The body of the creature was featherless and appeared to be covered with leathery skin. The tail was straight and looked similar to a lizards tail, however, it seemed to curl up at the bottom, when the creature made a left turn in flight. The woman could not see its legs that were possibly tucked underneath.
What caught the observers attention was the physical size of the creature and the unusual way that it was flapping its huge wings. It would at times flap the wings hard, then just glide through the sky. She noted that it seemed to flap the wings extremely hard when making a turn.
Used with permission of the witness.
The witness stated to me that the entire experience was almost surreal. As she was driving along, she had it in sight for a few minutes. It was around Depot and Otterman Street that she saw it turn to the left and fly off toward Route 119 to South Greensburg.
The witness has experience working closely with the wildlife of Pennsylvania and was certain that what she saw was not a turkey vulture, crane, or an eagle. It was something that she had never seen before. It was similar, however, to drawings of a pterosaur, a huge flying creature that has been long extinct and lived during the Mesozoic period.
A Second Report-May 22, 2021-Greensburg, Pennsylvania
As I was typing up the May 23, 2021 report, my phone rang. The man on the phone called to ask me if I had received any reports of a very large strange looking bird in the Greensburg area. I found out that he had also observed a similar huge, winged creature the day before the previous report. The man who lives in the northern section of Greensburg was walking his dog that afternoon when he noticed what looked like a huge bird in the sky directly overhead. Whatever it was it was very high up at an estimated altitude of 800-1,000 feet and moving toward the west.
The creature was possibly black or dark gray in color. Both the size and how it moved across the sky were unusual. The wingspan of the huge creature was estimated to be between 15-20 feet from wingtip to wingtip. The giant bird never flapped or adjusted the pitch of its wings while under observation. It just glided across the sky continuing to move westward. The wings also looked unusual as they came back to points parallel with its body. (See the accompanying sketch.) The tail seemed to come to a point.
The witness watched the creature for approximately 30-45 seconds, and he estimated that it moved about 2 miles or more until he lost sight of it among the trees. The man heard no sound as it passed overhead. The witness stated that he is not sure what he saw flying in the sky that day.
Addendum:
There has been a long history of sightings of huge flying creatures that, in the field of Cryptozoology fall under the term “Thunderbirds.” They have been seen throughout Pennsylvania as well as across the country.
For many years there have been reports of giant bird sightings in the vicinity of Route 119 in South Greensburg. It was about dusk one evening in 2001 when a man walking in South Greensburg heard a sound like “flags flapping in a thunderstorm” and saw a huge dark bird flying about 50-60 feet above the traffic on the highway. He estimated the wingspan was between 10-15 feet wide.
In August of 2010, at a residence just off of Route 119 just down the road from where the 2001 sighting had taken place, four people having a barbecue heard a loud swishing sound coming from overhead and watched as a huge dark bird with a massive wingspan flew about 40 feet above them.
There have been other such sightings in that same general area, and locals have reported the sound of something large passing through the air nearby and large shadows of what seemed to be a massive bird passing over their vehicles.
In April of 2020, during the afternoon, a man reported that he was driving down Pittsburgh street in Greensburg and was heading toward the business section of town when the shadow of a huge bird passed over his vehicle. He said a vehicle pulled up next to him and asked him if he had seen that big bird.
In October of 2020, at a location a few miles off of the William Penn Highway in Monroeville, which is a populated suburb of Pittsburgh, another witness saw a huge, oversized bird that was gray in color and was described as about five times the size of a hawk. That person estimated the wingspan to be about 14-15 feet from tip to tip.
There are many mysteries that take place that we don’t have answers for. The sightings of the so called thunderbirds are just one of them.
If you have seen any of these large flying creatures or anything else unusual, I would be interested in hearing from you. You can email me at paufo@comcast.net or call me at 724-838-7768.