I'm Laura Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's

news archives for stories that can't quite be explained. Today, we invite you to take a long, hard look up.

At the sky.

No, not at the sun.

Come on now, this isn't TikTok, and we aren't heading off to snort cinnamon or fall over milk crates.

We want you to consider the mysteries of the air and what might be in it,

soaring above, silently, ever-watchful, stalking prey on a drifting breeze, following the wind.

Winged creatures, birds or bird-like things, gods that take on the shapes of birds, gods that are birds, are part of, well, pretty much every human

mythological or folkloric tradition. From religion to fairy tales, the bird symbolism is there. The Arabian

Rock, the Greek Phoenix, the Thunderbird of North America. Sailors, for instance, they practically

have their own canon of birds to keep up with. Albatrosses and swallows and parrots and we won't even tell you

what they do with the Wrens. It's honestly macabre, but trust us, there's a lot going on there.

But when it comes to birds of true legend, well, on the whole, they tend to be big, very big.

History Channel's Monster Quest Birdzilla big.

In fact, Monster Quest perked up its scaly antenna when it caught wind of the 1970s

era story that we're bringing you today.

We imagine they found the central visual

pretty difficult to resist. The Birdzilla in question did earn itself other nicknames,

like Big Claw and Big Bird, which we'd like to point out was already taken, but that's about all anyone agreed on.

Well, that, and when the first sighting occurred. But maybe sighting is actually the wrong word

for it. Encounter might be better. And the mother of Marlon Lowe, who was only 10 in 1977, she would probably choose another

word altogether.

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