Pterosaurs in Oregon
By Phillip O’Donnell
Special Thanks to Ken Gerhard for Contributing Info
Oregon is a state of vast wilderness, forests, lakes, rivers, marshes, etc… Recently I have found several reports of pterosaurs in Oregon. Myself and two other witnesses saw a strange “bird” a few years ago that resembled a Pteranodon that sparked my interest in North American pterosaur sightings. More details about my encounter can read below.
In March of 2003 I saw a very large bird that had just landed in a fir tree about 250 yards away. I grabbed the binoculars and looked at it for about 15 seconds. I wasn't even thinking about Pterosaurs, so I didn't look for distinctive features. I did see that it had a horn on back of it's head that was sticking out at about a 45 degree angle. It had a long thick beak and a white chest with black spots. Soon after it flew to a nearby field and we ran outside. It soon flew out of the field and we could see was very long, pointy wings. One witness later told me, "I was looking through the binoculars when I saw the creature turn it's head, and I could see a large horn coming out of the back of it's head, almost like a second beak. The beak was large and thick." The next encounter with this “bird” occurred on April 30, 2004, at 3:40 in the afternoon. I saw the same bird jump from the field and flew behind some trees. It was very, very bright and almost seemed to “glow” in the sunlight. Another strange fact is that there were thin, red streaks across it's wings. I would estimate it’s wingspan to be eight to ten feet across. I am very much familiar with Great Blue Herons and large birds of prey, but I must say that this bird was different.
In the 1970’s, there was a rash of pterosaur sightings in Multnomah County, Oregon. This is what one of the witness said, “We were walking up the street, when one of us noticed a large bird…It had…webbed feet, long tail, webbed wings. I would guess it’s beak (or mouth) was about two and a-half to three feet long. It didn’t appear to have feathers on it, looked kind of leathery. It appeared to be a pterodactyl, from what I had seen in books. It was definitely flying north towards Washington. The wingspan was about twenty feet or so. After a few years, we started hearing about more people who had seen a pterodactyl. One of them was a friend of my mom’s. Her friend’s mother…had found one in her back yard. She and he daughter just watched it for a couple of days until it flew away. Please note that pterosaurs have been reported in Washington also. Charles Knight of Spokane, Washington told me that in the early 1960’s he saw two pterosaurs (he said they were the type that had a horn on back of their head) flying in circles near their herd of cattle in the early morning hours. A similar occurrence happened in Texas also in the 1970’s.
Another person in Brookings, Oregon said that in the morning he saw a bird with a nine foot wingspan and a long tail. It had no “under sided” flight feathers and it’s wings were long and narrow.
In 1995, a couple in Siletz, Oregon reported seeing a very strange animal by a river. They said that the shape of the creature was like that of a human except that it had claws and a bullet-shaped head. In the darkness they couldn’t see the creature very well, so they did not see it’s wings. Any pterosaur researcher can point out several details that are very similar to Dimorphodon or Anurognathus.
Someone recently came forward with a sighting in Marion County, east of Salem, OR (only hours from where my sighting occurred). He said that around 1994, he and his step-father saw a very large bird. He wrote, “and without recall of reason I glanced south and noticed a large, brown pteradon or pteradactyl (sp?) flying east roughly 150-200 yards away. I am very sure that the creature had no feathers. I have seen, many times, hawks and the like perched on fence posts while driving through the desert regions of southern California. Their flight was swift, the highest speed coming in pulses. The refraction of the sun of the black and brown feathers of these animals produced a sheen or luster that made the angular features of the wings more prevalent and easier to see. What I saw clearly had no feathers.”
Is it possible that Oregon has been visited by a small pterosaur in the past? If so, what species of pterosaur? According to my research I concluded that the majority of pterosaur sightings have been of Pteranodons. Another point I need to address is that it appears that pterosaurs are North America are migratory creatures, not staying in one place for over several years at the very most. If this is true, then it would explain why pterosaurs haven’t been captured yet – because people just aren’t ready when one is seen (or two).