Sighting record / 1868
Copiapó, Chile. Tuesday, 17 March 1868. About 5 p.m. The day's work at the mine was done, and the labourers had gathered to wait for supper. Then something came through the air from the direction of La Ternera. A gigantic bird, they said. Its immense wings were clothed in greyish plumage. Its head was like a locust's. Its eyes shone like burning coals. Along its long, serpent-like body, brilliant scales clashed together with a metallic sound as it turned in flight. It passed just above their heads, fast and in a very straight line. The next day, the local paper El Constituyente printed their story. From there it crossed the ocean to British journals, and later into the catalogues of Charles Fort and Jacques Vallée.
Copiapó lies in the Atacama region of northern Chile. In 1868 it was mining country. Its miners had their own legends. The best known is the Alicanto, a bird with glowing metallic wings that eats ore and leads miners to silver. One story says an Alicanto guided Juan Godoy to the Chañarcillo silver strike in 1832.