In Mark A. Hall’s book, Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds, he examines the alleged photographic evidence for these cryptid birds in depth. At the end of his discussion, he writes: “The status of the infamous ‘Thunderbird photograph’ has remained the same for years. A lot of people think they have seen the picture. Everyone wants to see it. But no one can produce a copy.”

Writer Shawn Lindseth over at Awesome Or Off-Putting penned a new mini-feature on Thunderbirds in 2006. Okay, that’s interesting, but what is more intriguing to me is the “photograph” shown with the blog, pictured here:

Is this the long lost “Thunderbird photo”? There is no caption. Why keep all this mystery going with another old seemingly “lost” photograph? From our Cryptomundo commenters, of course, it is just another computer-created “lost Thunderbird photo”. But it does beg the question, how many times are we going to see this photo popping up again and again as “the” lost T-bird snapshot?

The internet has many formerly flying candidates for the “lost photo.” They have included everything from the drawing of what people remember (below)…

…to the confusing “Mystery Civil War Pterodactyl” photo (directly below), in fact produced for the year 2000′s fictional program, “Freaky Links.”

Pterodactyl photograph used with permission of Gregg Hale, Executive Director, Haxan Productions. Credit, Fox TV. The actual object, all 11 feet of it, is now housed in the International Cryptozoology Museum. Another version of the image is below:

What’s in your wallet? Do you have a photograph of the Thunderbird? Or have seen it?

[Old comments on this previously published blog have been retained, because they are, well, interesting and entertaining to read, once again.]