Florida has its skunk ape (which I am still trying to track down) and Peoria-Pekin, Illinois has its Thunderbird. The Thunderbird is a huge ass bird with a reported wingspan reaching 20 or so feet. My wife is from Pekin and I asked her about the Thunderbird which supposedly last made an appearance back in the 70’s. As the story goes a thunderbird came out of the sky and picked up some unlucky kid. The bird eventually dropped the kid and flew off. I asked my wife about this and she said that as a child she remembered seeing the shadow of a giant bird fly by her. I am going to need to go to Pekin to research this one further.