Update: Kerala Thunderbird Photo

This photographic update and comparison on the recent “New Thunderbird Photos” posting shows a possible species that may or may not explain the Indian example.

Regarding the “Thunderbird” photograph (above) taken in Kerala, India, French cryptozoology student Fabrice Tortey suggests that although “size evaluation in the sky without point of reference is rather tricky, I think the birds are probably black kites (Milvus migrans govinda). The shape of the tail is characteristic.” See two photos of this species below.

I’m not certain how much can be seen of the tail from the distance demonstrated by this photograph, but the straight top (anterior) edge of the wings does not seem to indicate the pointed characteristics of the typical black kite’s wings. It does seem like the straighter “barn door” profile of the vultures.

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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