| Terror Birds | |
|---|---|
 Artist's Rendering | |
 Size Comparison Between Flightless Birds, Including Moa and Dodo | |
| Background | |
| Type | Flightless Bird, Living Fossil |
| First Sighting | Unknown |
| Last Sighting | January 7, 1976 |
| Country | United States |
| Habitat | Southwestern Region |
| Possible Population | Small |
Huge flightless Terror Birds were South America's top predators for millions of years and at nearly three meters (9 feet) tall they certainly lived up to their name. The CryptoZoo, a website on Cryptids has the following to say about terror birds...
"Today, the largest flightless bird that science acknowledges is the ostrich, but much larger flightless birds survived until relatively recent times.
Some of these were the phorusrhacids or 'terror birds.' They are not closely related to ostriches, emus, kiwis and other flightless birds of today. Their closest modern relatives are thought to be the snake-killing secretary bird of Africa and the seriemas of South America. These giant predatory flightless birds were among the prime predators of the southern supercontinent that consisted of South America, Africa and Australia, sharing this niche with marsupial predators. Eventually, more competitive predators from northern landmasses invaded these southern lands with the exception of Australia, and the terror birds died out, along with most of their marsupial comrades.
South America had birds of this type, but they are thought to have become extinct when the land bridge formed to North America and predators such as the cougar and coyote gradually replaced them. However, this assumption was recently overturned. Fossils from Texas and Florida show that at least one species of South American terror bird managed to establish itself in North America, and was still alive two million years ago. This species had wings that had evolved back into arms, with clawed "hands" on them. It may have looked remarkably like a small, predatory dinosaur. Estimates of its height range from a modest six feet to possibly as big as twelve feet for adult birds. The two-million-year-old fossils have been dated accurately without a doubt. Other North American terror bird fossils might date to as recently as 15,000 years ago, a time when people could have seen them. In fact, there is North American Indian folklore that is rather suggestive of the terror bird, even getting the details right, such as clawed arms instead of wings."
Sightings
One of the first sightings of the creature, known as Big Bird, occurred on the morning of January 7, 1976 when policemen Arturo Padilla of San Benito, Texas, spotted something unusual in the headlights of his cruiser. Padilla described the creature as looking like a big bird, a really big bird. A few minutes later Padilla’s fellow officer, Homer Galvan, also reported seeing the creature in the form of a black silhouette.
