Cryptozological claim proven?

Welcome to another Cryptozoology post. This time it has nothing to do with Montauk Monsters or some other thing washed up on a beach. It has to do with giant birds. Freaking huge birds, to be more accurate.

I heard about this in this article. How could you possibly resist reading an article like that? Anyway, the article is a scientific one, not a "what if" one, which gives it an air of credibility. However, the story made me think of one thing: Thunderbirds.

Not Thunder Cats. Thunderbirds. And I'm not talking about cars either.

Thunderbirds are, according to the legends, large flying birds that fly before thunderstorms. Native American legends have them as the explanation for thunder and lightning. For those of you into Pokemon, Zapdos (from the original 151 set) is based on this legend of a Thunderbird.

Another part of the legend is that these giant birds would swoop down and eat people, specifically small children. This appears in the Native American accounts, as well as the accounts from the Maori legends. On July 25, 1977, two thunderbirds reportedly swooped down and tried to carry of a ten-year old boy who was playing in the yard with his friends. Between his struggling and his mother's yelling, the bird dropped the boy and flew away. Similarly large birds have been sighted in different parts of the world for centuries.

There may be a link between the legends of the Native Americans and the legends of the Maori. More investigation is needed into the thunderbird legends and similar legends throughout the world, but this recent is more evidence that dismissing claims of "primitive" groups of people is not only mean, it is also bad science.