Big Bird!: Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters

This book might be entertaining for some young readers, but for any serious researcher it is a disappointment. He treats many dubious reports as credible without (in most cases) citing any original reports or articles, or any critical analysis in terms of exploring alternate explanations. His "Bibliography" is surprisingly short and includes mostly fellow "believers" with a couple mainstream works thrown in. The only source skeptical of "flying monster" claims that he includes is my web article "Living Pterosaurs" (Glen J Kuban) but does not even indicate that it is a web article, or provide a date or address. It's at: http://paleo.cc/paluxy/livptero.htm. Gerhard heavily promotes claims by John Whitcomb that my article refutes (including proof that his touted Civil War photo of a giant pterosaur carcass next to a group of soldiers is a fake, which JW finally admitted), but Gerhard does not even mention my writings when discussing JW and his claims. Some of the "Big Bird Sightings" listed in the Appendix are especially lame, aside from the lack of good documentation for any of them. For example, he includes "1971, Harlingen, m. Gonzales, Description: unusual brown bird." This he considers credible evidence of anything significant?

Although the sightings seem to be mostly in Texas, some of them are really interesting, even shocking. For me, however, the lack of editing, for at least some of the content, gave me an unpleasant surprise (so I gave it three instead of four stars). Still, some of these accounts may not be available in other cryptozoological resources, for the author has interviewed at least some of the eyewitnesses himself. Although I found a little evidence that the author was sometimes careless about accuracy of data, the problem appeared to be a limited problem. If you are seriously interested in strange flying creatures not classified in biology textbooks, this book is one of the few worth having (few nonfiction books contain sightings of possible pterosaurs).To compare it with other nonfictions with much content about apparent living pterosaurs: It is not a creationist book (as is "Dinosaurs: Dead or Alive" or "Searching for Ropens"). It is not packed with sightings from U.S. states other than Texas (as is "Live Pterosaurs in America"). It is a useful resource for sightings of possible pterosaurs and possible giant birds mostly within Texas.

Mr. Gerhard makes an impressive case for these unknown creatures, backing it up with dedicated field work, and location photos. I can only wish that that others would take these sightings seriously. there are far too many to be delusions. There are strange things being seen in the skies. Doesn't it rate investigation? even if only to identify what is causing these sightings?

The only book I know of regarding a subject that has long fascinated me. A little dry in its writing style, but very informative!

I have not finished this book yet but so far it is very interesting. Love it.

Ken Gerhard is one author who never disappoints when it comes to books he has written on Cryptozoology.I have read "Big Bird" twice now and will likely read it again. It's amazing how many sightings and encountersthere are out there on oversized and gigantic birds and I was glad Ken researched them out and compiled themwithin these pages. If you're interested in mysterious creatures you'll find this book fascinating!

I bought this book because I was interested in Thunder Birds, I saw one over 50 years ago. Had I not been standing beside a broken tree I may well have been his lunch. As it glided down the creek I noticed the wing span was creek bank to creek bank more or less. I went to the assessor's office a few months ago and measured the creek banks, the narrowest spot was 36 feet, the widest was 50 feet, they can measure to an accuracy of 0.0001. I am telling you the bird I saw was 36-40 feet wing span about 8 - 10 feet off the ground. He / she flapped his wings 3 times till he went out of sight maybe a mile away. I thought it was an airplane when I saw the shadow about age 14, there were not many planes around then. I heard no sound, but watched the shadow coming toward me, I thought it was an airplane, dark brown in color but not quite black. I was mind boggled at the size and thinking of nothing else - good thing I was standing by a tree, I may have been a Thunder Bird burger.

I was disappointed when I took this book out of the Amazon.com mailer and saw how thin it was, but when I started reading it I realized it was PACKED with interesting research and personally investigated accounts - NOT just a bunch of speculation as is too often the case with this type of book. Anyone interested in Forteana will enjoy this book and I am adding the author to my list of writers whose books I will look out for in the future.

The title of this book is somewhat misleading, as it is mainly about modern sightings of pterasaurs rather than birds. This is apparently because `Big Bird' is a term that was used for these sightings when there was a rash of them in Texas in the seventies. The sightings from this area form the main subject matter of the book, and the author has visited some of the sites and sought out the witnesses, with limited success. He also covers sightings from elsewhere in the USA, and surprisingly these have been made in about sixteen states. He mentions reports from elsewhere in the world, notably Africa, where there have been sightings of a pterosaur called the kongamoto, and giant bat-like creatures. Papua New Guinea also seems to be a hot spot, with a rhamphorhyncoid called the ropen, and a larger version called the duah. There are also reports from Australia, Crete, and even Britain. Historical records are mentioned, from Arabia, Egypt, Peru and Chile, and legends from Aztecs and American Indians. Other strange flying beasts are briefly mentioned, such as the chupacabras, dragons, Quetzalcoatl, flying snakes, the owlman, the mothman, and the thunderbird. The book has a useful appendix giving an overview of what is known about pterasaurs from the fossil record, and another listing the sightings from the southern states.I'm no expert, but I suspect this is a comprehensive survey of what is quite a limited subject, which is why the book is rather short at 91 pages. There is no index, but then I suppose this is forgiveable in such a short book. However, a lot of the material is covered in Karl Shuker's In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, which obviously covers other types of animals as well, but if you want a more comprehensive overview of the `flying beast' subject this seems to be a useful publication.However, there's a problem. Gerhard's publishers have let him down badly on a number of points. The typesetting is amateurish, with too-narrow margins that almost has the text disappearing into the spine of the book on the left hand pages. The font size is also rather small, so perhaps they were trying to minimize the number of pages to save money. The page headings and numbers also look odd, in over-large bold type. A few black-and-white photos of the locations of sightings are included, but some of these do not show up very well, I think because the paper is too thin. There are also some black-and-white drawings that are not anything to write home about, but I suppose the author rather than the publisher will be responsible for commissioning these. There are a few typos - well, I suppose they'll always creep in.If there is a second impression I hope they revamp the book and resolve these issues, as this is a well-written, absorbing read, set out in a workmanlike way with level-headed assessments. If this subject interests you, I would say don't let the presentation issues put you off.

good,ref. to this subject!

I like it, that's all.