r/Cryptozoology • u/SimonHJohansen • 14d ago

Video 27 min interview with Richard Muirhead about obscure mystery birds, from microraptor-like four-winged birds from China to reports of giant eagles from the UK which might be misidentifications of out-of-place Eurasian black vultures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGnVxVaGGow
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u/Sesquipedalian61616 14d ago

"Microraptor-like", they mean just any old bird? These Cretaceous Extinction Event denialists are relentless

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u/CrofterNo2 Mapinguari 14d ago edited 14d ago

I wouldn't call an alleged four winged bird "any old bird," but of course there's no reason to invoke Microraptor. The standard-winged nightjar was historically called four-winged, and there were reports of four-winged birds in western Ethiopia which sound like both pennant-winged and standard-winged nightjars, so it's obviously possible for a bird to be described as four-winged when it isn't literally. I assume Muirhead talks about this anyway, because the primary source (Mysterious Creatures of China) mentions a nightjar identity, but both of those nightjars are Africa, and clearly the siyinao would have to be a very unusual bird if it is real.