Chicago Mothman Wave — 2017 Winged Humanoid Flap

Overview

In the spring of 2017, something strange started happening in Chicago. On April 7, a security guard at the Chicago International Produce Market reported seeing a large, dark, winged figure standing in a parking lot before it unfurled massive wings and launched itself into the night sky. Within days, similar reports began filtering into paranormal research platforms. By October, over 55 documented sightings had been logged — an extraordinary concentration of winged humanoid reports in a major metropolitan area over just seven months.

The witnesses described something remarkably consistent: a figure standing 6 to 7 feet tall, dark grey or black in color, with featherless wings spanning 10 to 15 feet, and glowing red or orange eyes. It was seen perched on buildings, flying over Lake Michigan, circling above the Chicago Skyway, and hovering near O’Hare International Airport. Some witnesses reported it vanishing instantaneously. Others said it moved with a fluid, bat-like flight pattern quite unlike any bird.

The 2017 Chicago wave was immediately connected to the most famous winged humanoid in American folklore: the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which terrorized that small town in 1966-67 before the catastrophic Silver Bridge collapse. Was Chicago’s visitor the same entity? A different one? Or something far more mundane — misidentified birds, drone hoaxes, and mass suggestion fueled by social media? The answers depend entirely on which evidence you find persuasive.

Origins & History

The first report that would eventually be recognized as part of the Chicago wave came on April 7, 2017, though earlier, isolated sightings from late 2016 and early 2017 were retroactively folded into the pattern. The April 7 witness — a security guard who chose to remain anonymous — described the creature in language that would become familiar over the following months: tall, dark, with huge wings and an unsettling presence. He reported feeling an intense dread that he could not explain rationally.

Over the following weeks, additional reports surfaced through Lon Strickler’s Phantoms & Monsters blog and website, which became the primary clearinghouse for Chicago sightings. Strickler, a longtime paranormal researcher based in Pennsylvania, had been documenting winged humanoid reports across North America for years and immediately recognized the Chicago reports as unusual in their frequency and consistency.

By May, the sightings were drawing media attention. Local Chicago outlets covered the phenomenon with a mix of bemusement and genuine curiosity. The Chicago Tribune ran a story. Vice published an investigation. The sightings were trending on social media, which — depending on your perspective — either helped surface genuine encounters that would otherwise go unreported or created a feedback loop that encouraged misidentification and fabrication.

The geographic pattern was striking. Sightings clustered around three areas: the Lake Michigan lakefront, particularly near Adler Planetarium and the Museum Campus; the area surrounding O’Hare International Airport on the city’s northwest side; and a corridor running along the Chicago Skyway on the south side. Researchers noted that these areas shared a common feature: proximity to large bodies of open water or major flight corridors.

The Singular Fortean Society, founded by journalist and researcher Tobias Wayland, began a systematic investigation of the sightings, interviewing witnesses, mapping locations, and analyzing the chronological pattern. Wayland would later publish The Lake Michigan Mothman (2019), the most comprehensive treatment of the Chicago wave.

The sightings peaked during the summer months of 2017, with multiple reports per week in July and August. By October, the frequency had dropped significantly, though sporadic reports continued into 2018 and 2019. As of 2020, the Chicago area has continued to produce occasional winged humanoid reports, though nothing approaching the 2017 wave’s intensity.

Key Claims

• A large, winged humanoid entity repeatedly appeared in the Chicago metropolitan area over a concentrated seven-month period in 2017
• Witnesses from diverse backgrounds — including security guards, Uber drivers, commuters, couples on dates, and families — reported strikingly similar descriptions independently
• The entity displayed intelligent behavior, appearing to observe witnesses, react to being noticed, and choose specific perching locations with clear sightlines
• The creature may be the same entity (or type of entity) as the original Point Pleasant Mothman, potentially serving as a harbinger of disaster
• Some witnesses reported associated phenomena, including electronic device malfunction, intense feelings of dread or terror, headaches, and disorientation
• The sightings cluster geographically near water (Lake Michigan) and transportation infrastructure (O’Hare Airport, the Skyway), suggesting the entity has specific habitat or behavioral preferences
• The wave represents genuine paranormal activity that cannot be explained by misidentified birds, drones, or mass hysteria

Evidence

Witness Testimony

The core evidence for the Chicago Mothman consists of witness reports — over 55 documented during the 2017 wave, with additional reports before and after. The witnesses represented a broad demographic cross-section: men and women, ranging in age from teenagers to senior citizens, with varying levels of familiarity with Mothman lore. Many reported that they did not know what Mothman was prior to their sighting and only connected their experience to the phenomenon after searching online.

Several features of the testimony are noteworthy:

Consistency of description: Witnesses separated by miles and weeks described the same basic figure — 6-7 feet tall, dark-colored, with very large featherless or bat-like wings, glowing red or orange eyes, and silent or nearly silent flight. Some described a muscular, humanoid torso. Others focused on the wings, which they compared to those of a bat rather than a bird.

Emotional impact: A striking number of witnesses reported intense, irrational fear — not the ordinary surprise of seeing something unusual, but a deep, primal dread that several described as the most frightening experience of their lives. Some reported this feeling preceding the visual sighting, as though they sensed the entity’s presence before seeing it.

Reluctance to report: Many witnesses came forward only after discovering that others had seen something similar. Several told Strickler and Wayland that they had initially kept their experience private for fear of ridicule. This reluctance, proponents argue, suggests the reports are not attention-seeking behavior.

Geographic and Temporal Patterns

Researchers mapped the sightings and identified spatial clustering that seemed non-random. The lakefront concentration led some investigators to propose that the entity was associated with Lake Michigan specifically — perhaps using the lake as a corridor or habitat. The O’Hare cluster prompted speculation about the entity’s interest in transportation infrastructure, echoing the original Mothman’s association with the Silver Bridge.

The temporal pattern showed a clear bell curve: few sightings in early spring, increasing through May and June, peaking in July-August, and declining through September-October. This seasonal pattern is consistent with bird migration and breeding activity — a point skeptics have not overlooked.

Photographic and Video Evidence

The 2017 wave produced relatively little photographic evidence, which is notable given Chicago’s population density and the ubiquity of smartphone cameras. A handful of images and short videos were submitted, but none clearly show a winged humanoid. Most are ambiguous — dark shapes against night skies, blurry moving objects, or images taken at distances too great for identification. No clear, close-range photograph of the entity exists.

Debunking / Verification

Mundane Explanations

Large Birds: The great blue heron, which stands 4-5 feet tall with a 6-foot wingspan, is common in the Chicago area and is frequently active at dusk and dawn. In poor lighting, a heron taking flight could appear startlingly large and humanoid. Sandhill cranes, which stand up to 5 feet tall, also pass through the region during migration. Great horned owls, with their large size and reflective eyes, are another candidate.

Drones: Commercially available drones equipped with lights could produce sightings of glowing, flying objects, particularly at night. Some sighting locations — near O’Hare, for instance — are areas where drone activity would be illegal, which could explain why operators would not come forward.

Social Contagion: Media coverage of early sightings created awareness of the Mothman concept across Chicago. Subsequent witnesses may have been primed to interpret ambiguous visual experiences — a large bird at dusk, an unusual shadow, a drone — through a Mothman framework they would not have applied before learning of the wave. This is not the same as saying witnesses lied, but rather that expectation shapes perception.

Hoaxes: The attention generated by the sightings created an incentive for fabrication. Some reports were submitted anonymously to online platforms with no way to verify identity or location. The percentage of genuine versus fabricated reports is impossible to determine.

Counterarguments from Proponents

Proponents counter that bird misidentification cannot account for reports of a 6-7 foot figure with humanoid features, bat-like rather than feathered wings, and red glowing eyes. They note that many witnesses reported the creature at close range — within 50 feet — under conditions where a heron would be easily identifiable. The emotional impact reported by witnesses, including physical symptoms like nausea and headaches, is also difficult to attribute to seeing a large bird.

The theory remains unresolved. No physical evidence confirms the existence of a winged humanoid in Chicago, but the volume, consistency, and demographic breadth of the testimony resist easy dismissal.

Cultural Impact

The 2017 Chicago wave reinvigorated interest in the Mothman phenomenon, which had been largely dormant since the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies starring Richard Gere. The wave demonstrated that Mothman was not a historical artifact confined to 1960s West Virginia but an active, evolving element of American paranormal culture.

The Chicago sightings received coverage from major outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Vice, The Daily Beast, and numerous television programs. They were featured on podcasts including Astonishing Legends, Last Podcast on the Left, and Mysterious Universe, reaching audiences in the millions.

Tobias Wayland’s The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest (2019) became one of the best-selling cryptozoology titles of its year, establishing the Chicago wave as a canonical event in the field. Lon Strickler’s ongoing Phantoms & Monsters coverage created a real-time archive of the phenomenon as it unfolded.

The wave also sparked debates within the paranormal research community about methodology, media influence, and the relationship between cryptids and UFO/UAP phenomena. Some researchers noted that several Chicago Mothman witnesses also reported seeing unusual aerial lights, echoing John Keel’s original observation that Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant coincided with a wave of UFO reports.

For Chicago itself, the Mothman became an unexpected addition to the city’s folklore — joining the ranks of Resurrection Mary, the Devil Baby of Hull House, and other legendary inhabitants of a city with a rich tradition of the weird.

Timeline

Key Figures

Lon Strickler — Pennsylvania-based paranormal researcher who operates the Phantoms & Monsters blog and served as the primary collector and documenter of the 2017 Chicago sightings. Strickler had been tracking winged humanoid reports nationally for years before the Chicago wave and brought both experience and infrastructure to the documentation effort.

Tobias Wayland — Journalist and founder of the Singular Fortean Society who conducted the most rigorous investigation of the Chicago sightings. His 2019 book provided the first comprehensive narrative of the wave, including witness interviews, geographic analysis, and historical context.

MUFON Chicago — The local chapter of the Mutual UFO Network contributed investigators who documented several sightings and noted the overlap between Mothman reports and unusual aerial light phenomena in the same area.

Sources & Further Reading

• Wayland, Tobias. The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest. Singular Fortean Society, 2019.
• Strickler, Lon. Phantoms & Monsters (website). Ongoing documentation of Chicago-area winged humanoid reports.
• Swancer, Brent. “The Chicago Mothman Wave of 2017.” Mysterious Universe, October 2017.
• Bartolotta, Gina. “Chicago’s Own Mothman? Sightings of Winged Creature Reported in City.” Chicago Tribune, September 2017.
• Keel, John. The Mothman Prophecies. Saturday Review Press, 1975. (Background on original Mothman phenomenon)
• Coleman, Loren. Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. Paraview Press, 2002.

Related Theories

• Mothman as Disaster Harbinger — The original Mothman phenomenon and the theory that it predicts catastrophic events
• UFO/UAP Phenomenon — Several Chicago Mothman witnesses also reported anomalous aerial lights