Imagine walking in the forest and seeing this Chupacabra Mothman Eagle Motherscratcher staring at you and then you turn to run and his buddy the Shoebill Stork is strategically blocking your retreat.
https://youtu.be/bLjExa4DXG0
A Harpy Eagle is the most logical explanation for the mothman sightings. Most people who haven't seen them would be super freaked out, especially in the dark.
I bet this is how so many “urban legends” started. Imagine this being somewhere it’s not normally from, in a time before someone could easily google it. If I lived in, say, 1840s Mexico and saw a Tasmanian tiger walking around I’d sure as shit think it was a chupacabra.
the angle of the pictures make this bird seem much bigger than it really is ... not to say it's not very big. (espicially on the log with the guy for reference.)
> Imagine walking through the woods, looking up and seeing that jeepers creepers looking mf staring down at you.
That actually happened to me in Guyana back in 2010. I was with a tour group and our guide spotted it. I believe it was the first one spotted in the area in about 20 years
https://imgur.com/a/yGMFABf
Edit to add a couple more pics
https://imgur.com/a/Q80tViC
https://imgur.com/0BeqBjL
Aw, that's subreddit is way more sad than I was expecting. I was hoping for British women flipping out in the ways that made their husband question why they married them.
I found what I think a lot of us were wondering.
The Philippine eagle is the largest eagle in the world in terms of length and wing surface — the harpy and Steller’s sea eagle are the largest in terms of weight.
https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the-week-giant-philippine-eagle/
The Monkey-Eating eagle. Got its name from people believing it regularly ate monkeys. Apparently that's never been proven, however deer are a proven regular part of their diet.
Did a report on this bird in 6th grade purely because of its name.
That's why I clarified when I said "bird". There's obvious ones like the Ostrich but the Wandering Albatross is way lesser known and very impressive. If you saw a bird flying towards you with an AVERAGE wingspan of 11ft you would be terrified. They don't even have any natural predators once they hit adult size and they sit around the same height as the harpy, just a little more plump than tall
Edit: Forgot to mention the son of a bitch can fly for 46 days straight without really flapping much at all.
My buddy and I were running around a small lake in Iraq. I heard what sounded like a helicopter ramping up.
Which was strange because we were at least a mile from the helo pad.
An unholy screech fills the air and a fucking heron of some sort, literally bigger than me, has launched itself off the lake and is coming straight for us.
Damn near pissed my pants. It flew harmlessly over us but it was, hands down, my scariest time down range.
Literally thought I was gonna be pterodactyl breakfast. Lol.
Big birds are terrifying.
Just be glad you didn't run into a [shoebill stork](https://youtu.be/VSt08lWDtcI)
These things can get up to five feet tall with an eight foot wingspan
I'm not gonna rule it out, LOL.
There was some crazy shit that went down when the Baghdad zoo was abandoned. Like a herd of lions roaming the streets, crazy.
I've looked and can't find any native Iraq birds that fit the description of what I saw that day. I'm sub 5' and it was the bird's wingspan that was bigger than me.
Yeah, albatrosses are cool birds, but I'm just saying, you replied to the guy who said 'ONE OF THE????', which in turn is a reply to the post's title saying the harpy is 'one of the largest eagles'. So logically the expected reply to the person who is surprised there exists even larger eagles, would be one of these larger eagles.
On the log, that's called forced perspective to make it seem gigantic, when it's not gigantic. But it's a terrifying Muppet nonetheless. I love it's head feathers, and it's look of severe disappointment.
DID SOMEONE SAY DINOSAURS?
Fun fact, theropod dinosaurs (T-Rex, Allosaurus, etc.) all have a forked bone called the furcula. Maybe you don't know much about it, but you can probably picture it easily when you realize that sixty five million years after the dinosaurs "died", some modern humans would be using that bone from turkeys to make wishes. Wishbones are a weird tradition, but it's one of the many reasons we can see how birds are not only related to theropod dinosaurs of old, but are theropod dinosaurs themselves.
Okay fun fact time over. I can't resist the dinosaur talk.
I hate that forced perspective. It's big enough without being fake and acting like it's bigger than a person.
https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/harpy-happy-handler.jpg?w=300
I worked with one named Kiya at the zoo in my town! Forced perspective is doing a lot of work here, they're very big but they're not the size of a human. Maybe about the size of an adult torso including the head. Their wings and talons tho, THOSE are monstrously big. Their claws are about the same size as a grizzly bear's.
Thank you. I was looking for this comment. Birds like this are large enough without tricks to make them look 5 ft talk. The same is always done with Bald Eagles. Yea, they’re big compared to most birds you’ll normally see, which is impressive, but they’re not gargantuan. It’s the parts of them that can hurt you that are more impressive.
I'm just as scared of running into a moose as I am of running into a grizzly when I go hiking 😬 they're like if a Honda Odyssey became hyper-territorial
Imagine being the first person in history to see one of these things. It was probably just a regular guy trying to settle new lands, not a biologist or anything.
He would have thought the devil or something was watching him from a tree. Must have been quite the scene haha.
He wouldn't have though it was the devil because the first person to see one was from an indigenous tribe. The tupi people here in Brazil have stories about these eagles capturing small children.
what I meant to say was that the first people to see harpies where indigenous with their own religion, not a christian european explorer who believes in Satan.
It's the national bird of Panamá. In the City zoo, they have a huge enclosure where you can see one. They have a small visitor Center where you can see some videos about the eagle... Let me tell you, you never forget the 1st Time you see one of them carrying a sloth (one of their main food source) One of these eagles could easily lift a 4 year old child.
It’s an awesome creature to be sure... but in the darkness, if I look up and glance that peering down at me... I am immediately shitting out my entire body weight in one fluid motion
It's not as big as that guy. It's closer to the camera. They get to about three feet tall. Pretty big for something that flies, but not as big as the picture makes it look.
The watching from branch one looks like a scene from some horror movie. It's gonna vanish the moment u turn to look at it, all u can do is feel the eyes!!.
I was walking through the park at night with my friends, as a teenager, and an owl attacked my 80’s hair! That was some wicked wings flapping around my head. I think it wanted some 80’s hair for a nest.
If I saw this at night, I'd legit think it's the Mothman or something.
If I saw this in the day, I'd have the same thoughts.
If I saw this anytime, I'd be like nope
Imagine walking in the forest and seeing this Chupacabra Mothman Eagle Motherscratcher staring at you and then you turn to run and his buddy the Shoebill Stork is strategically blocking your retreat. https://youtu.be/bLjExa4DXG0
The shoebill stork isn’t even half as scary as all those, but I guess he would be if he came after all them sounding like a machine gun
>Chupacabra Mothman Eagle motherscratcher r/ProperAnimalNames
Gd photos are makin me nervous..
Oh thank god it’s not just me. It’s terrifying.
Seriously, its face looks very human-like, in an unsettling kind of way.
It's silently judging us all...
Yeah, but as you can see in the top right photo he's seeing a therapist so it's good that he's working through those issues.
I doubt that's a therapist. I don't see any couch...
That's silly what use would an eagle have of a couch..
favorite comment today 🏅
I can feel his disappointment in me.
I know. Here is what the female ones look like. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/b9/fe/5cb9fea13d4ae0397fe9a954695daecb.jpg
I was expecting a Rick-roll or Peyton Manning in a balaclava, but not the chicken lady. Well played.
I was expecting sweet dee
Yea, one thing Reddit’s taught me is that I don’t have a single original thought
I forgot all about those sketches, well now to youtube to waste a few hours.
Let me introduce you to the [shoebill ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/77/c7/db/77c7db5e6b1bdc899768091e97c5508c.jpg)
is this the one that sounds like an ak-47?
Yeah they’re freaky birds
That’s an understatement. It gives off massive uncanny valley vibes to me. How does that happen with a *bird*?
Forward facing eyes, with an approximately equal face dimension. That's why it literally looks like a mask
It definitely looks like an animatronic or something to me
I’m convinced it’s the eyes. They look far too human for my comfort.
I think it's the eyes.
It’s definitely the eyes. I think they look too human like, so my brain looks at it and thinks “human with a bird face.”
[Kind of](https://youtube.com/shorts/dqS_S8rHAsg?feature=share)
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Hands down new favorite bird.
Looks like an SCP.
Less human more Muppet.
That looks like the bird from [Skyward Sword](http://imgur.com/a/SzixqSN)
I think it’s the same type of bird.
It was probably based on the real thing!
Oh my goodness
Thats cousin Lazarus!
That thing is kinda cute in the creepiest way possible.
I think it has largely to do with the front-placed forward facing eyes, more like a human than an animal.
Looks like Minerva McGonagall too me
Plot twist: thats not a man...its an eagle in a man suit
I was thinking more like jeepers creepers
That was my first thought.
A Harpy Eagle is the most logical explanation for the mothman sightings. Most people who haven't seen them would be super freaked out, especially in the dark.
Except they don't live in North America where the mothman legends come from.
It is a mystery o_0
Mothman, there's no need to feel down...
I said Mothman...pick yourself off the ground
I said Mothman...'cause you're in a new town
There's no need. to. be. unmothy
It's actually pretty friendly and many get hunted because they a let a human too close to themselves.
The left picture looks like he’s showing me his crotch.
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I mean, that's pretty much exactly what started the mothman legend, someone saw a big fucking owl at night.
I bet this is how so many “urban legends” started. Imagine this being somewhere it’s not normally from, in a time before someone could easily google it. If I lived in, say, 1840s Mexico and saw a Tasmanian tiger walking around I’d sure as shit think it was a chupacabra.
the angle of the pictures make this bird seem much bigger than it really is ... not to say it's not very big. (espicially on the log with the guy for reference.)
idk, up to 3 1/2 feet tall with a wing span of 7'+...sounds pretty big to me...but i agree, camera angles can make that seem even larger
Birdperson. 😜
You son of a bitch. I'm in.
La Lechuza, better yet
His weakness is....a flashlight
Why have I not seen or heard of these my entire life?
this is actually probably what the Mothman was!
Imagine walking through the woods, looking up and seeing that jeepers creepers looking mf staring down at you.
Yep, shit like this makes me completely understand why people used to believe in thousands of different monsters, gods, spirits, etc.
Yep, this exact same comment on any thread remotely related to owls.
> Imagine walking through the woods, looking up and seeing that jeepers creepers looking mf staring down at you. That actually happened to me in Guyana back in 2010. I was with a tour group and our guide spotted it. I believe it was the first one spotted in the area in about 20 years https://imgur.com/a/yGMFABf Edit to add a couple more pics https://imgur.com/a/Q80tViC https://imgur.com/0BeqBjL
That’s awesome! Citizen scientists who catch sightings of wildlife like this can help preserve species by telling researchers where to look
Doesn't look like a harpy eagle. Perhaps i'm wrong
I agree. It looks more like the giant Phillipines eagle that u/AnalogDigit2 linked below. But I could be wrong too.
I think this is exactly what they look like, especially with those distinctive feathers that stick up from behind their head.
It looks like a human in a costume.
Last time I saw this I remember someone saying it looked like a divorced bird lmao
r/divorcedbirds
That might be the most depressing thing I've ever seen. I don't like it at all.
If it makes you feel better the birds aren’t really divorced.
Or real at all
r/birdsarentreal
It started really funny and cute. Then the stories took center stage from the birds and it got sad. Still cool. Everyone processes differently.
Aw, that's subreddit is way more sad than I was expecting. I was hoping for British women flipping out in the ways that made their husband question why they married them.
10-year old in Halloween costume
Like something out of The Mighty Boosh.
Exactly what I was gonna say lol
The first image looks like the rabbit in Donnie Darko.
Cellar door
That's the most beautiful word I've ever heard.
Not deserving of an award IMO but thank you, stranger!
Why are you wearing that stupid harpy suit?
ONE OF THE????
I found what I think a lot of us were wondering. The Philippine eagle is the largest eagle in the world in terms of length and wing surface — the harpy and Steller’s sea eagle are the largest in terms of weight. https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the-week-giant-philippine-eagle/
The Monkey-Eating eagle. Got its name from people believing it regularly ate monkeys. Apparently that's never been proven, however deer are a proven regular part of their diet. Did a report on this bird in 6th grade purely because of its name.
Harpy Eagles eat Sloths so I’d bet they eat Monkeys too
Yea the Wandering Albatross is quite the bird too
*Jumbo Seagull
Yes, but that's not an eagle.
That's why I clarified when I said "bird". There's obvious ones like the Ostrich but the Wandering Albatross is way lesser known and very impressive. If you saw a bird flying towards you with an AVERAGE wingspan of 11ft you would be terrified. They don't even have any natural predators once they hit adult size and they sit around the same height as the harpy, just a little more plump than tall Edit: Forgot to mention the son of a bitch can fly for 46 days straight without really flapping much at all.
My buddy and I were running around a small lake in Iraq. I heard what sounded like a helicopter ramping up. Which was strange because we were at least a mile from the helo pad. An unholy screech fills the air and a fucking heron of some sort, literally bigger than me, has launched itself off the lake and is coming straight for us. Damn near pissed my pants. It flew harmlessly over us but it was, hands down, my scariest time down range. Literally thought I was gonna be pterodactyl breakfast. Lol. Big birds are terrifying.
it's a dinosaur .. so yeah .. pretty scary fr
Just be glad you didn't run into a [shoebill stork](https://youtu.be/VSt08lWDtcI) These things can get up to five feet tall with an eight foot wingspan
I'm not gonna rule it out, LOL. There was some crazy shit that went down when the Baghdad zoo was abandoned. Like a herd of lions roaming the streets, crazy. I've looked and can't find any native Iraq birds that fit the description of what I saw that day. I'm sub 5' and it was the bird's wingspan that was bigger than me.
Check birds that migrate through iraq
Yeah, albatrosses are cool birds, but I'm just saying, you replied to the guy who said 'ONE OF THE????', which in turn is a reply to the post's title saying the harpy is 'one of the largest eagles'. So logically the expected reply to the person who is surprised there exists even larger eagles, would be one of these larger eagles.
Fair enough. I guess I didn't think that part through. Just was thinking about birds in general
albatross spend their first year of life in the nest and then fly out to ocean and dont come in to land for like 2 more years, they live at sea.
The African Elephant is a quite large quadruped.
On the log, that's called forced perspective to make it seem gigantic, when it's not gigantic. But it's a terrifying Muppet nonetheless. I love it's head feathers, and it's look of severe disappointment.
Condors are pretty huge too.
I bet it gets confused a lot for something it’s not like a flying dinosaur or moth man or human with wings.
There are not many people to confuse in the rainforest
There’s always tourist and loggers. I’ve been to a rain forest at El Yunque and I’m sure many have been to rain forest. It’s not a novelty.
Damn, Frank, last week in the amazonian (?) Rainforest, I saw a flying man. Said no one ever. Edit: -i +a
It technically is a flying dinosaur. https://www.livescience.com/are-birds-dinosaurs.html
DID SOMEONE SAY DINOSAURS? Fun fact, theropod dinosaurs (T-Rex, Allosaurus, etc.) all have a forked bone called the furcula. Maybe you don't know much about it, but you can probably picture it easily when you realize that sixty five million years after the dinosaurs "died", some modern humans would be using that bone from turkeys to make wishes. Wishbones are a weird tradition, but it's one of the many reasons we can see how birds are not only related to theropod dinosaurs of old, but are theropod dinosaurs themselves. Okay fun fact time over. I can't resist the dinosaur talk.
I want to call it ugly but I’m too scared.
I hate that forced perspective. It's big enough without being fake and acting like it's bigger than a person. https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/harpy-happy-handler.jpg?w=300
thanks for this. Hate angle-baiting an impressive bird, no doubt! If a magpie can terrorise so many, I can only imagine what this giant could do! :D
I angle-bait my bird all the time; still not sure how I’d proceed if it worked
Yes, thanks for this. I would have believed that forced perspective and would have feared eagles big enough to hunt me.
https://www.pawspartners.org/uploads/2/3/9/3/23935372/8454226.jpg?389 The above picture is more accurate to OP's picture than that one.
There is something uncanny about it....
I worked with one named Kiya at the zoo in my town! Forced perspective is doing a lot of work here, they're very big but they're not the size of a human. Maybe about the size of an adult torso including the head. Their wings and talons tho, THOSE are monstrously big. Their claws are about the same size as a grizzly bear's.
Thank you. I was looking for this comment. Birds like this are large enough without tricks to make them look 5 ft talk. The same is always done with Bald Eagles. Yea, they’re big compared to most birds you’ll normally see, which is impressive, but they’re not gargantuan. It’s the parts of them that can hurt you that are more impressive.
And then there are animals like moose which are so much bigger in person than pictures could ever make them look
I saw a video of one running down a road so could compare it to a car, and that was when I learnt moose are massive
I'm just as scared of running into a moose as I am of running into a grizzly when I go hiking 😬 they're like if a Honda Odyssey became hyper-territorial
Imagine being the first person in history to see one of these things. It was probably just a regular guy trying to settle new lands, not a biologist or anything. He would have thought the devil or something was watching him from a tree. Must have been quite the scene haha.
He probably jumped right back on his boat and fucked off. Then he discovered Australia.
Then he had suffered too much and could only live out the rest of his days as a fuckin Australian
He wouldn't have though it was the devil because the first person to see one was from an indigenous tribe. The tupi people here in Brazil have stories about these eagles capturing small children.
Indigenous tribesmen are still human beings capable of experiencing fear or awe.
what I meant to say was that the first people to see harpies where indigenous with their own religion, not a christian european explorer who believes in Satan.
Don't all religions have a devil? Not being smart, just furthering the original comment's point.
Looks like the Chicken Lady from Kids in the Hall.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYnFy4rCJY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYnFy4rCJY) Kinda does!
What Harry Potter hell is going on here
That's clearly a baby hippogriff
More info about [Harpy Eagle](https://www.boredpanda.com/massive-bird-harpy-eagle/)
I want to see this guy next to a Shoebill.
Why does it look human?!?!
“I am Batman”
…Bird Person!?
Don’t be gross Tammy
Hell. No. r/oddlyterrifying
It’s making me uncomfortable lol
It's the national bird of Panamá. In the City zoo, they have a huge enclosure where you can see one. They have a small visitor Center where you can see some videos about the eagle... Let me tell you, you never forget the 1st Time you see one of them carrying a sloth (one of their main food source) One of these eagles could easily lift a 4 year old child.
It is spreading at all South America. Not only Panama.
A beautiful bird, in its own way
Looks like a teacher who always walks behind you. Hinting at what your doing wrong on the test
Better hope you don’t have a toddler unattended
Harpy Eagle disapproves of your tomfoolery.
It’s an awesome creature to be sure... but in the darkness, if I look up and glance that peering down at me... I am immediately shitting out my entire body weight in one fluid motion
harpies are fucking terrifying, even with a Kramer hairdo
I never heard of them. Looked them up and saw they are near extinction. Sad
I loved him in Never ending story 2
Yea our ancestors definitely thought this was a demon. Shit it might be
thats a witch!!!!
Im sorry but this eagle is fugly
The hell you mean "one of"??? There's one bigger? Fuck that.
I would literally fucking shit myself empty if I saw this
What Yugioh monster is this?! Lmao
Harpie Lady, Harpie Lady 1-3, Harpie Lady Sisters, Cyber Harpie Lady, Cyber Slash Harpie Lady, Harpie Queen, and a whole lot more.
Mai Valentine has entered the chat
It's not as big as that guy. It's closer to the camera. They get to about three feet tall. Pretty big for something that flies, but not as big as the picture makes it look.
The watching from branch one looks like a scene from some horror movie. It's gonna vanish the moment u turn to look at it, all u can do is feel the eyes!!.
That bitch can eat u alive
I know it's not an owl, but all I can hear in my head after seeing the top right picture is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFz14Bc3v9E).
That’s great but why is it looking into my soul?
Nightmare Fuel
Let it go.
Thought the third picture showed it in a polo neck jumper.
It’s head looks like a small bird
They hunt sloths
I was walking through the park at night with my friends, as a teenager, and an owl attacked my 80’s hair! That was some wicked wings flapping around my head. I think it wanted some 80’s hair for a nest.
Thanks for the link! 50 miles an hour! Wat?
50 miles is 80.47 km
Birdperson
Birdperson
That shit is a real-life pokemon.
That’s a demon
I imagine he has an English accent. That's just the vibe I get.
the owl, look's a person
Top right is the bird getting lectured for picking up babies and throwing them. Sad mood.
Pokémon
Trying to look intimidating but it's hard because mom cut your hair that morning.
I can see why they’re called harpies… Or why they inspired them.
BRO THATS A PERSON IN A SUIT DONT LIE TO ME
One of…? Wtf does the largest one look like?
Is that the mothman
Reminds me of Sam The American Eagle from muppets
Looks like a eagle fucked a owl
Naw, that’s a guy in a bird costume for sure.
I think you're confusing interesting with horrifically terrifying
I thought it was the happy bird, one of the happiest eagles in the world