I’m still working from the note on my phone of things to write about, and I’ve come across this story. It’s from a long time ago, my guess is almost 10 years old.
As most of you know from reading my blog, I have an older brother. He’s basically one of my best friends. He lives in Ottawa, and when this story happened, I lived in Kitchener with my parents because I was going to university.
I like to visit him a lot. And after I was about 21, I would try to go to Ottawa at least once a year to hang out with him and do some touristy things. One year, as I was driving back, I think it was my first time going by myself without dragging a friend along with me, I hit some major traffic. Like I’m talking stand-still for HOURS, hope you aren’t hungry or have to go to the bathroom for the rest of the day, type of traffic. I was having none of that, so I called my dad and asked him how I could get around it. He helped me to reprogram the GPS that I had in the car at the time (this was before it was illegal to use your phones while driving). The new route took me far away from the main highway, and through lots of small little towns and the middle of nowhere, and was going to add at least an hour and a half to my trip but that was ok because I wasn’t going to just be stuck in traffic going nowhere.
As I was driving along, I had my music blaring, of course, and I was dancing and singing along in my car, of course, when all of a sudden this HUGE ASS BIRD runs onto the road!!
I swear it was a wild turkey, but everyone I tell this story to says there is no way that it could have been a wild turkey.
I was driving a little Ford Focus at that time and it stood almost as tall as the car (once I slammed on the breaks and came to a stop it was easy to tell how big the bird was). It had freakishly long legs and a body that looked like a turkey. It came out into the middle of the road just long enough for me to have a mini-heart attack, stop the car, and calm down. It stood there staring me down for a few seconds and then just moved on like this was just a normal day for it, scaring the crap out of random drivers on this road.
So I know a few things that it wasn’t – I know for sure it wasn’t a peacock or an ostrich. I SWEAR it was a Frankenstein wild turkey or something in the turkey family. But everyone is like “ooo noooo wild turkeys don’t grow that big, stop being so dramatic.”
I can still picture it in my head clearly to this day! Most people say that it was probably an emu (pictured above), but the body wasn’t the same as an emu. Maybe it was a turkey/emu hybrid?! That could happen, right? Someone tell me they’ve heard of that!
this emu is judging me…
No Love for Fatties 
That happened to me too!! And it was in fact a gigantic turkey! My mom was with me and we both agree it was the mother of all turkeys. 😀 I believe you T!
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LOL omg YES! thank you!
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Emus will usually run in the same direction as the car first. Then when they realise they aren’t getting away they will veer (hopefully away from the road but you have to be ready in case they do run in front). They are really fast for their size!
Dunno if there are any loose in the US, but could it have been a Cassowary? Another big Aussie bird I could see how one of them might be mistaken for a giant turkey.
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GASP!!! Omg omg omg omg!!! It might have been a cassowary! I just googled and it honestly looks exactly like it! Omg!!!!!
I’m not sure if people have them on farms – do you use them for meat? Idk! Haha but I do know people keep exotic pets. I knew a family when I was younger that had a wallaby – his name was Joey haha
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Nope, definitely don’t eat cassowaries – the Aussie species is endangered (there are two other species in New Guinea, not sure of their status). They are only found in a tiny strip of rainforest in north-eastern Australia (approx 500km by 50km). They are hugely important to our rainforest because their diet is fruit and some plants rely on the cassowary digestive system to propogate their seeds (https://cassowaryrecoveryteam.org/the-southern-cassowary/diet/)
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Oooo wow! Learn something new every day!
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I want to know what it was now haha, I’m sure you are right, Turkeys are huge…are they not?
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Not that tall – one of the comments suggest it might have been a cassowary and I googled and I’m almost convinced it was! Oh wow that would be awesome if that’s what it was!
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I just google that… yeah it looks much bigger than a Turkey and a little frightening!
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I know!!! It looks so much like what I remember seeing!!
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They are incredibly aggressive. You wouldn’t want to get out of the car!
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Holy shit, this is happened to me before. Several years ago I was driving down the street in the town that I live and one of those big, white, lanky birds Ran into my car. Like, he flew into my car as I was driving. And then it just continued to fly it looked a bit shaken up. It was white, scary. I don’t know the actual name for it but I know that sometimes we called him “Cow birds.” They hang around open Fields And hang out around the cows. Anyway, it hit my car and then continue to fly. I laughed my ass off while driving, it was so random and funny. What a funny reminder this post was
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Oh WOW!! This bird didn’t actually hit my car! I would have been so freaked out if it had actually hit my car lol. I’m glad you were able to laugh it off after!
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If He would have died by the hand of my car, I’d have felt bad but when I saw him half ass flying away, I thought to myself, ‘how often does a big cow bird hit your car?!!’ And commenced to laughing. Such a strange thing. 😆😆🤔🤔😆
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LOL
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