Thunderbird Wing Flapping Sounds

This video features a simulation of the sound a Thunderbird (teratorn) with a 16' wingspan might make when it flaps its wings. It also explains the method I used to simulate the sounds. The technique is not unlike the way thunder was created on early radio program dramas, except I used a different and smaller sized material. These sounds will not blow you away, but you will now know why the bird was named "Thunderbird". I think it highly unlikely that early man would have coincidentally come up with "like thunder" to describe the flapping sound of a large bird's wings. I think he must have seen some large bird, perhaps now extinct. For some good information on these large birds, which some people still report seeing on occasion, check out Mark Hall's book, "Thunderbirds - America's Living Legends of Giant Birds".