Seeking the Missing Thunderbird Photograph
Posted by: Karl Shuker on December 19th, 2014
One of the most perplexing sagas in the fascinating chronicles of cryptozoology is the long-running search for the thunderbird photograph, supposedly missing, presumed lost, for over a century.
Here is an investigation that I have conducted with regard to this mystifying, allegedly real picture (which may well – or may not ever – have existed). It has uncovered some surprising information including hitherto-undocumented findings, and it is still ongoing, as will now be seen.
Further details can be found here on my ShukerNature blog.
About Karl Shuker
My name is Dr Karl P.N. Shuker. I am a zoologist (BSc & PhD), media consultant, and the author of 25 books and hundreds of articles, specialising in cryptozoology and animal mythology. I have a BSc (Honours) degree in pure zoology from the University of Leeds (U.K.), and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the University of Birmingham (U.K.).
I have acted jointly as consultant and major contributor to three multi-author volumes on cryptozoology and other mysterious phenomena.
I am the Life Sciences Consultant to The Guinness Book of Records/Guinness World Records (Guinness: London, 1997-present day), and was consultant to Monsters (Lorenz Books: London, 2001), as well as a contributor to Mysteries of the Deep (Llewellyn: St Paul, 1998), Guinness Amazing Future (Guinness: London, 1999), The Earth (Channel 4 Books: London, 2000), and Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained (Chambers: London, 2007).
I appear regularly on television & radio, was a consultant for the Discovery TV series Into the Unknown, and a question setter for the BBC's quiz show Mastermind.
I am a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a Member of the Society of Authors, and the Cryptozoology Consultant for the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ).
I have written articles for numerous publications, including Fortean Times, The X Factor, Paranormal Magazine, FATE, Strange Magazine, Prediction, Beyond, Uri Geller's Encounters, Phenomena, Alien Encounters, Wild About Animals, All About Cats, All About Dogs, Cat World, etc.
In 2005, I was honoured by the naming of a new species of loriciferan invertebrate after me - Pliciloricus shukeri.
With respect Karl the picture you have shown looks nothing like my memory of the missing picture of a giant bird attached to the side of a traditional American clapboard barn. Some of these barns of course still exist maybe for example in the tombstone area and I have looked at quite a few on line to try and find a probable candidate. Without success but maybe !
The picture I remember was of a line of people ( 8-10 say) in front of a large barn not in modern dress, but cowboy type and one possible had sheepskin trousers on. Quite a good but old picture taken with a good camera.
My memory of the picture has been somewhat obfuscated by time and tide and a bit of a mix-up with similar examples I have seen over the years.
I think there is probably a real picture-somewhere……….. and I wish you the best of luck in your quest.