by Cole Herrold
Recently a documentary was made by Crash Course Cryptozoology on the Lone Pine Mountain Devils. The Lone Pine Mountain Devils are believed to be small four-winged flying mammals similar in appearance to bats or carnivorous squirrels. These creatures have popped up a few times in some resources as a potential cryptid. It was through the documentary, however, that it came to light that the creatures most certainly like the Ozark Howler and Oklahoma Octopus are nothing but online urban legends. While this flying four-winged mammal is most certainly a hoax, one of the interesting features of the documentary was the hypothesis that what was seen was a Microraptor, a prehistoric dinosaur that did have feathers on its legs, giving it an appearance like it had four wings. One of the reasons this hypothesis was implausible, however, was the location of where the fossils had been discovered, namely China. Which, even without a connection to the Lone Pine Devils, could still be around.
In the Changbai Mountain Region, there are
rumors and reports of a bizarre bird with four wings. This bizarre bird is
known as the Siyiniao, which translates literally to 'four-winged bird,' is
described as being covered in a pale-yellow plumage with a round head, a
slender tail, and obviously four wings, the top or front pair being much larger
than its lower pair. In 1908 Liu Jianfeng wrote in his book Changbai Shan
Jianggang Zhilue, where we get this initial description from also goes into
detail about the creatures alleged vocalizations claiming that they are similar
to an Old-World Oriole's. Liu Jianfeng collected the tales of the Siyiniao from
locals who were extremely familiar with this creature and its habits.
