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Or did the sky make it look enormous?
That question would become central to the mystery.
The First Reports Were Easy to Dismiss
A single report of an unusually large bird would probably not have attracted much attention.
People misjudge the size of birds all the time.
When an animal is high above the ground, there may be nothing nearby to provide a reliable sense of scale. A bird that is relatively far away can look surprisingly large when viewed against an empty sky.
A person might see a bird that appears to have a ten-foot wingspan when, in reality, it is considerably smaller.
Perspective can be deceptive.
Distance can be deceptive.
Light can be deceptive.
And human memory can become less precise when an unexpected event happens quickly.
But the story became more intriguing when additional residents began describing what they believed was the same kind of creature.
They did not necessarily agree on every detail.
The exact color varied.
The estimated altitude differed.