In the summer of 1990, something enormous may have flown over Barcelona.
It was dark.
It was loud.
It may have had feathers.
It may have had leathery wings.
It may have been a vulture, an albatross, a mutant pigeon, a mechanical bird, a prehistoric survivor, or the wandering spirit of someone who had angered the gods.
Or it may never have existed at all.
Whatever it was, Barcelona spent three glorious months discussing it in the newspaper.
Welcome to the Barcelona Big Bird Incident.
It Began in Les Corts
On June 10, 1990, La Vanguardia published a letter from a Barcelona resident named Pere Carbó.
Carbó described something that had allegedly happened on the night of May 28 in Les Corts, a district on the western side of the city.
Residents had been awakened by unbearable screeching or cawing. When they stepped onto their balconies, they saw the black silhouette of an enormous bird.
Carbó estimated that it measured somewhere between three and five meters across.
That is roughly ten to sixteen feet.
This was not a slightly oversized seagull that had been eating particularly well.
According to Carbó, numerous neighbors saw it and discussed it the following day. He wanted to know what the creature was and why nobody had mentioned it in the press.
The press had now mentioned it.
Barcelona responded.
Everyone Had Seen the Bird
Letters began arriving from other readers.
Some claimed they had seen the same enormous creature in Barcelona. Others placed it in nearby communities, including Gavà, Sant Joan Despí, Salou, Bellvei del Penedès, and the Empordà region.
Reports came during the day and at night.
The bird was usually described as black or gray, but that was about where agreement ended.
Its estimated wingspan ranged from three meters to fifteen.
Some witnesses saw an enormous crow.
Others saw a pigeon.
One described something resembling a chicken or ostrich.
Several thought it looked prehistoric, with membranous wings like a pterodactyl.
The creature reportedly produced loud, unpleasant cries in three different tones. Other witnesses said it was completely silent.
It flapped its wings.
It glided without moving them.
It had thick legs.
It may have had a long neck.
It may have eaten Barcelona’s missing cats.
By this point, the Big Bird had acquired nearly every possible characteristic except consistency.
The Original Social Network
It is important to remember that this happened in 1990.
There was no Facebook neighborhood group.
There was no TikTok video filmed through a dirty windshield.
Nobody could post a blurry photograph with three red circles and the caption, “WHAT IS THIS THING OVER LES CORTS?”
The letters page was social media.
One person described an extraordinary experience. Other people read it and searched their memories, their neighborhoods, and the sky for something similar.
Then they wrote in too.
The more letters the newspaper published, the more people watched for the bird.
The more people watched, the more birds, shadows, aircraft, and strange nighttime sounds became possible evidence.
Soon other newspapers and media outlets picked up the story. Police reportedly received hundreds of calls, and Barcelona’s citizen information line became overwhelmed.
An unidentified giant bird had become one of the city’s biggest conversations.
And Barcelona, to its everlasting credit, did not waste the opportunity to become ridiculous.
Bring on the Mutant Pigeons
The theories arrived quickly.
One reader suggested that environmental damage had mutated Barcelona’s pigeons into enormous predators.
This theory was accompanied by concern about cats that had allegedly disappeared from balconies without leaving bodies in the streets.
There is no evidence connecting missing cats to a giant radioactive pigeon.
There is, however, something deeply human about seeing a monstrous bird and immediately assuming that it has been stealing neighborhood cats.
Another reader, identifying himself as a botanist and wildlife scholar, confidently declared that the creature was an Avis Cervus, also called a Peritio.
He described it as a half-deer, half-bird creature related to other legendary giant birds. According to his account, it had been documented centuries earlier and was merely passing through Barcelona during its customary migration toward Madagascar or possibly Atlantis.
He assured readers that the creature was harmless.
I am not convinced that “It is a deer-bird spirit migrating to Atlantis” is especially reassuring, but the effort was made.
Other citizens blamed a mechanical bird or elaborate model aircraft. Some suggested enormous gulls, owls, crows, or vultures.
One letter writer offered the traditional Spanish solution: “Bicho que vuela, a la cazuela.”
If it flies, put it in the cooking pot.
Scientists were asked to join the discussion.
An ornithologist reportedly suggested that an albatross might explain at least some descriptions. Large albatrosses can have wingspans exceeding three meters, although finding one flying over Barcelona would itself have been unusual.
The environmental department of the Catalan government offered a simpler answer.
It was a large vulture.
Case closed.
Except Barcelona was nowhere near finished with the bird.
Then the Bird Got Even Bigger
Once a mysterious creature enters public conversation, it rarely becomes smaller.
A later witness claimed to have seen a prehistoric-looking bird near El Prat Airport that appeared six times larger than his car.
A family near Girona reportedly saw a dark, silent bird measuring five or six meters across, with thick legs and wings that did not appear to move.
In 1996, several people near Montseny allegedly watched an enormous black bird fly only a few meters above the ground.
Other reports described wingspans of twenty or even thirty meters.
At that size, we have moved beyond “unidentified bird” and entered “commercial aircraft with opinions.”
But not every letter was offered in complete sincerity.
Readers joked about cooking the bird. Someone suggested making it the mascot of the Barcelona Olympics. Another described seeing it in Park Güell wearing argyle socks, only to admit that he had been dreaming.
One writer claimed that the creature had defecated so dramatically across his windshield that he crashed into a cypress tree, a detail he hoped would be useful in his dispute with the insurance company.
By late summer, Barcelona was no longer simply reporting a cryptid.
Barcelona was collaboratively writing one.
What Could It Have Been?
There are several reasonable possibilities.
Large birds can be difficult to judge against an open sky, especially at night. Without a familiar object beside them, distance and size become guesswork.
Vultures, gulls, herons, owls, and other ordinary birds can look enormous when seen unexpectedly from below.
Mechanical aircraft, kites, helicopters, and shadows may explain some reports.
The original letter may have been sincere. It may have been exaggerated. It may have been a joke that found an enthusiastic audience.
Once the newspaper began publishing additional accounts, suggestion almost certainly played a role.
People were now looking for the bird.
An ordinary sound became its cry. A large gull became its silhouette. A shadow crossing an apartment window became proof that it had returned.
Some people may have sincerely misidentified what they saw.
Some may have embellished.
Some were plainly joining the fun.
And some may have looked into the sky over Barcelona and seen something they genuinely could not explain.
What Evidence Do We Actually Have?
Letters.
Lots of them.
Contemporary newspaper coverage.
Reports of calls to police and city information services.
Later collections of alleged sightings.
No clear photograph.
No feather.
No nest.
No body.
No consistent physical description.
No evidence of a giant unknown species living above Barcelona.
The creature also changed dramatically depending on who saw it.
It had feathers until it had membranes.
It was three meters across until it was thirty.
It screamed until it flew silently.
It was a bird, a pterodactyl, a machine, an albatross, a vulture, a mutant pigeon, or a supernatural deer-bird headed for Atlantis.
That is not strong zoological evidence.
It is fantastic folklore.
Maybe Barcelona’s giant bird was a vulture.
Maybe it was an albatross far from home.
Maybe it was several ordinary birds stitched together by suggestion and summer boredom.
Maybe the whole thing began as a joke.
But for three months in 1990, thousands of people looked up.
And somewhere over the rooftops of Barcelona, a monster took flight.
Does It Get a Chair on the Porch?
Provisionally.
The Barcelona Big Bird may visit the Grove, provided it agrees to remain a reasonable size, refrains from eating neighborhood cats, and does not deposit anything windshield-obscuring in the driveway.
It will also need to pass a supervised introduction with the Beast of Exmoor.
The Beast is already occupying the sunny end of the porch, and I am not rearranging everyone because an unidentified flying creature has arrived without references.
If they get along, the bird may perch on the porch roof. A standard chair seems impractical for something with a reported wingspan ranging from three to thirty meters.
If it is actually a mutant pigeon, all agreements are subject to immediate review.
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