Since both engines were damaged, and birds were involved, there were almost certainly more than one bird present and involved.

And to MattBille…good reference Johnny is the bestest crypto-cartoon I’ve ever seen:)

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Hudson-River-Manhattan-New-York/photo//090118/480/1d321d97a6ed454782cafc8b1ea2aef7//s:/ap/plane_splashdown_scenarios

A large bird took down a four-engined, zillion-dollar USAF B-1B bomber in 1987 when the plane struck a white pelican. The dark humor passed around those of us in the Air Force at the time was that “B-1B” stood for “Birds 1, Bombers nothing.”

I doubt a collision of this force would leave the bird entirely unharmed. When a car hits a deer, for instance, whether it runs off or not, there are likely going to be injuries on the deer in addition to the damage to the car. There would almost certainly be physical evidence left behind from such a collision, such as hair or blood. I find it hard to believe that a giant bird would be able to collide with a plane with enough force to make it crash while incurring no injuries of its own, and without leaving a single physical trace behind. If a plane were to be brought down by a giant bird, I would expect that the bird is probably not going to be feeling so hot either. I think this has great importance for the examination of evidence.

Due to its injuries, it could become grounded, or it might not be able to feed itself and in turn search for easy food sources, both of which could possibly expose it to more sightings by hikers and whatnot, or provide a possible approach for cryptozoologists to search for the animal. The creature might fly erratically, which might bring more attention to it, or bring it closer to airspace where more people might see it. The creature might even die from its injuries, which could maybe turn up a corpse if it was found before decomposition and the ravages of scavengers could take full effect. Since the location of the collision would be known, the general area of where to look for a possible body could perhaps be more quickly deduced.

At the very least, some physical evidence could be left behind. Blood, feathers, even careful examination of the points of impact upon the plane caused by a large animal, the these sorts of things would go a long way towards trying to identify a giant mystery bird.

These are just a few things that I think need to be considered when weighing these giant bird collision reports.

I see the point Loren is trying to make here, with possibilities, but again, if there is no “weirdness” mentioned, it’s better not to start trying to look for it…but in such cases look at all the info to see if there are any indications of possible cryptid intervention.

Concerning giant birds, however, I could see how something that size would probably take an interest in a single engine plane, and possibly follow it or interfere with it out of curiosity…or even possibly seeing it as a threat to its space/territory…

The reports of collisions with giant birds are very interesting, but I wonder if in some cases, the sighting of these could have been caused by flocks of birds as well. It seems to me that under certain circumstances, a tightly packed flock of birds could appear to be a single, larger animal. Granted, pilots are possibly used to seeing bird flocks, but I’m not sure the possibility can be entirely ruled out.