Big Bird Report: 1978, Florida

Eyewitness F. J. Cosentino submitted the following report:

I just watched Monster Quest about giant birds on the History Channel. I feel compelled to make comment about the giant birds. They are real. I saw one myself in 1978 in Florida. As a young engineer working for Rockwell International, I was on a project in Orlando, missed my flight, but was able to get a flight from Miami back home to Dallas. So, I drove from Orlando to Miami on a highway far from the Interstate. In the middle of nowhere about noon, there was a giant in jet black bird in the middle of the highway. I slowed the car as it just stared at me. I stopped and got out of the car in disbelief. It was the most primitive, scary thing that I have ever seen. It was about six feet tall with gigantic muscular talons, jet black wings, black leathery head, hunched shoulders with it wings at its side, and a long rounded beak. It was tearing away at a big raccoon in the middle of the road. It stared at me with red eyes with its red eyes with no fear at all. after about a minute, it flapped its wings and was airborne and came at me. I dove in the car “scared to death.” It’s wings were about 20 feet long. It hovered over the car for a few seconds, then gained altitude and flew South to the trees in the swamps. I told all my friends when I got back to Dallas, but nobody believed me. I am still haunted by this giant black bird and it bright red eyes staring at me directly in my eyes.

Monster Quest shows all of these skeptics who say this was a condor or turkey buzzard. There is no way this was a condor or turkey buzzard. This thing was massive. This giant bird is real…I have seen it myself 35 years ago in 1978. This bird is forever etched in my mind with it scary red eyes staring me down. Again, I saw this episode on television, and feel compelled to make my statement that I saw this giant black bird after 35 years holding in this story. There is nothing else like it, and it still haunts me.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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