Birds and Other Weirdness in Northern UFOlogy
March 30th 2025
I recently was exploring the depths of the Internet Archive, one of my favorite digital pastimes, and, whilst doing a search for UFO-related keywords like "ufonaut" (a phrase that I just love because of how silly it sounds when said out loud, but also because it describes the beings inside UFOs without presuming they are extraterrestrial in origin), found the first issue of the UFO zine-newsletter Northern UFOlogy, published by a UFO research group based out of the north of England in 1976. I'm not really a believer in the supernatural, but I love UFO subculture and research, and all the lesser-known weirdness associated with that sphere, along with, of course, a love for alien monsters and weirdos in general.
I love the use of smaller letters to form the larger letters on the cover
Anyway, in probably the best article featured in this first newsletter (and definitely the meatiest portion), a one J.B. Delair discusses the possible explanations for ufonauts beyond the extraterrestrial hypothesis. He presents a wide array of example reported ufonauts, including humanoids, non-humanoids, ones that behave in a "childish" manner, or are animalistic, in such a dizzying diversity that the hypothesis of their being a single intelligent race of flying saucer pilots visiting Earth from another planet seems unlikely (at least, insofar as you accept eyewitness reports, of course). Their article (UFONAUTS: WHO AND WHAT ARE THEY?) presents a set of three answers to the problem of the wide diversity of UFO inhabitant reports (which are all interesting but which definitely don't seem like the only possible options lol):
Indeed, the diversity of ufonauts is so wide that one concludes that either:-
1) each reported type represents a different race of beings - in which case a very large number of technologically advanced cultures exist and are visiting Earth, or
2) that some (perhaps many) of the types are no more than subservient creatures, such as trained anthropoids or programmed robots that carry out certain predetermined tasks here, or
3) that all ufonaut types may be merely different forms of expression of an intelligence normally lacking a physical or corporate [sic] form, but capable of projecting itself into our consciousness in an endless variety of shapes and forms.
Let us consider these alternatives more closely. All are mind-boggling.
Mind-boggling indeed!! That last point is the conclusion that I see many UFO enthusiasts take, whether they call it "ultraterrestrials" or "extradimensionals" or whatever. French UFOlogist Jacques Vallee spearheaded such a take in his book Passport to Magonia (which I haven't gotten around to reading yet oops), and the YouTuber Think Anomalous gestures in the direction of that in his videos as well (check his stuff out, it's really well made!)
But the real reason I wanted to share the first issue of Northern UFOlogy was the more obscure examples highlighted in Delair's article, namely one surreal incident involving birds:
The earlier references to programmed birds leads us to the final collection of ufonauts or to creatures frequently associated with UFOs, These are rather a mixed lot of entities, and are essentially even more weird then the 'conventional' ufonauts.
The aforementioned birds have been sighted not only in Puerto Rico, but also in the Ohio valley of America, and in New Zealand, The Puerto Rican birds were apparently responding to unearthly 'music' heard by witnesses to be emanating from remote inland regions, over or near to which many UFOs have been sighted. The activities of the birds were, however, somewhat enigmatic, and it may well be that they were merely well camouflaged reconnaissance contrivances. Significantly, they appeared in areas that shortly afterwards experienced chronic animal mutilations of a particularly selective and expert kind, and, as with the UFOs, suddenly ceased their activities when the animal mutilations abruptly ended. All three phenomena - i.e., UFOs, animal mutilations and 'birds' commenced and ceased almost simmoultaneously [sic] with one another. Interestingly all the birds were excessively large. Could it be that they contained small ufonauts acting as observers or site selectors? If so, then the birds were merely camouflaged mechanical constructions of advanced type, and ideal for their purposes.
Not only is this description absolutely unsettling (non-avian bird-like things responding to mysterious unearthly music... sign me up!), it also reminded me of the (relatively) recent spoof conspiracy theory Birds Aren't Real. I don't know all the details of the parody, but the basic idea is that large swathes of the bird population were killed and replaced by reconnaisance devices... except well, here in the Northern UFOlogy version, they are from out of this world, and possibly piloted by very small non-human entities! I would love to draw up something of a schematic for an alien-piloted bird-device, maybe visually similar to those anatomical illustrations of Godzilla kaiju. I've seen some folks in the left-wing parapolitical sort of sphere cast aspersions on "Birds Aren't Real," but I don't know much about it or their criticisms of it; I just find it interesting and kinda funny how similar in content this random paranormal incident cited in a 1970s UFO newsletter and the recent conspiracy theory parody are. I'd love to find out more about the unnatural bird cases mentioned in this article!
In addition, a number of other fascinating tidbits of weirdness get namedropped. These include, for instance, a cactus-like entity that left marks on the ground, a pair of small humanoids with completely transparent legs, and a "stump-like creature" encountered near Toledo, Oregon. Most of these I have never heard of (other than namedrops of the Flatwoods Monster and Mothman), and would love to find out more about! But, I won't go into too much detail here. If you want to check out the newsletter, you can find it here! There are also many other issues of Northern UFOlogy and other UFO newsletters on the Internet Archive, so I'll keep perusing them for more interesting tidbits to share here!