<title>Mothman and The Thunderbird

Assessment:

There is a startling visual resemblance between the Mothman descriptions and the Thunderbird artifact. The single difference is the head - the Thunderbird has one, Mothman doesn't. If the holes in the Thunderbird figure were intended as eyes, the identical placement of the eyes is a significant feature. With the exception of the head, the Thunderbird is a figure that exactly reproduces the Mothman descriptions.

A correspondent has this to say about the head-discrepancy: "I feel compelled to tell you that I found an important misconception in your evaluation of the Pennacook figure. The shape in the Native America figure is not a "head", but a stylized flame as shown by it's shape. This has been placed there to anthropomorphize the figure but does not show a solid head. This in my eyes makes the figures identical."

(While on the subject of heads, it is interesting to note that in 1952 in Flatwoods West Virginia a towering entity with glowing eyes and a "head shaped like an ace of spades" was seen by multiple witnesses. The "ace of spades" shape is a good description of the head on the Pennacook Thunderbird artifact.)

A second resemblance is its perceived disposition: the citizens of Point Pleasant felt terrorized by the Mothman - the Thunderbird was a figure of dread and fear in the culture of the Pennacook craftsman who created the copper figure.

There is more correspondence between the artifact and composite sketch than between physical descriptions of the Mothman and traditional descriptions of the Thunderbird. The traditional descriptions of the Thunderbird tend to represent a gigantic bird, while the Mothman is described as a winged man-like figure.

However, in either case, both had glowing red eyes - a telling clue - and flew, and were beings of dread. From behind, a large walking Thunderbird bird would resemble a Mothman being. The oddly raised shoulders of the Mothman would correspond to the hunched up wings of a shuffling bird. Both are recorded as shuffling. It is also significant that Thunderbird lore states that giant raptors when walking could be mistaken at night for a human.

The initial question may not be whether there is a strange "Mothman" creature that troubled folks in West Virginia, or whether there really is or was a Thunderbird being that the Pennacook of New Hampshire and other Algonquin speaking tribes of New England feared - the point is that both cultures have legend of it, and images of this creature (in this case composite sketch and copper artifact) - with the exception of the head motif in this instance - are identical.

Secondly, it would appear that this is a case of significant correspondence between anomalous-appearing beings, rather than sightings of a real yet unknown species (such as a large bird). The constants between the Mothman and Thunderbird are in the paranormal aspects. If they are the same creature, they are a paranormal one.

Thirdly, in regards to the Thunderbird, there appears to be two situations happening simultaneously: a paranormal red-eyed anomalous entity, and the possibility of a large unknown raptor akin to the Teratornis Merriami. This does not apply to the Mothman or his kin - the Mothman has always proved himself to be paranormal.

If there are indeed strange paranormal beings in the world, perhaps they are definable by types - much in the way the reports of lake monsters and Bigfoot are recognizable "types." If so, whatever produces these phenomena appears to be consistent in its types. I find it curious that two cultures separated by 400 years, 750 miles, and dissimilar cultures have recorded a particular "type" in almost exact detail.

I would say that there are grounds for suggesting that the good folks at Point Pleasant in 1966 and the fine Abenaki Pennacook of sixteenth century New Hampshire were reporting images of the same being - whatever that being may really be.

Notes & Sources:

Alien Animals by Janet and Colin Bord
Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings by John Keel
Curious Encounters by Loren Coleman
Goblin Universe by Ted Holliday

Mothman & Other Curious Encounters by Loren Coleman
Mothman Prophecies by John Keel
Mysterious America revised edition by Loran Coleman

June Melling's sketch of Cornish Owl Man:

Mothman and The Thunderbird - Separated at Birth? (Could They be One in the Same?

Note: the eyes and head set down in the shoulders creates the same "headless red-eyed" silhouette as the Mothman.

Artists rendering of Roger Scarberry's 1966 Mothman sketch:

Addendum - The Red Eye Gallery:

A consistently reported feature of paranormal creatures are their glowing red eyes. Both the Mothman and many of the Thunderbird sightings include this anomaly in the reports. No known terrestrial birds or beasts have self-luminous eyes. Some animals, particularly the nocturnal ones, have reflective eyes - their eyes have a mirror quality that helps make the most of the available light. But this reflection is silver-white, and does not glow, let alone glow red. Where eyes glow red, the paranormal is close at hand. It is one of the surest signs of the paranormal in a sighting.

Below are the sketches of the Mothman, and the Thunderbird artifact, with the eyes filled in red for side-by-side comparison.

Please note also that the Owl Man's head and eyes are set down low on the shoulders - so low that in the dark or from behind it would present the same "headless, glowing-eyes-on-the-chest" appearance and silhouette of the Mothman.

Originally published in www.boudillion.com