general
Lechuza is an excellent example of folktale turned cryptid. For generations, Lechuza has been a malicious entity featured in Mexican and Mexican-American culture to frighten young children into behaving, or rattle the nerves of adults who consequently were told the story of Lechuza themselves as children. It's doubtful that many contemporary cryptozoologists would even consider Lechuza a cryptid if it weren't for so many reports of something loosely resembling the wives' tales.

As it stands, enough reports of some large bird-like creature in the Lone Star state compel cryptozoologists to take a closer look at this frightening apparition. So many reports were collected that Lechuza was also dubbed Big Bird.
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description/appearance
In folklore, Lechuza is a large owl-like creature with the head of an old woman, often times a witch. In contemporary reports, particularly the rash of sightings in the mid-seventies, Lechuza appears to be a strange combination of bird, monkey, or bat. Commonalities between reports gauge the creature at roughly 4-5 feet tall (1.2-1.5m) with large wings and tremendous red eyes. Witnesses occasionally give Lechuza a large beak, while other times describing no beak at all. In several reports, Lechuza possesses a bald head that resembles a gorilla.
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range/habitat
Reports of Lechuza have been collected from all around the Rio Grande Valley as well as Mexico. Tales of shape shifters who take the form of an owl are also very common in Native American lore. This may be due to tribal movement from present-day Mexico up through what is now Oklahoma and beyond. The people and stories no doubt left behind may account for some common traits in tales of large bipedal bird-creatures.
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history/origin
Written tales of Lechuza as folklore are difficult to come by. Garnered from oral tradition, Lechuza is traditionally a witch either in the form of an owl or large bird, or who can shape-shift into this form. Some versions of the tale have it that there is only one Lechuza who was once a witch murdered by her fellow villagers. To seek her vengeance, she took the form of a large bird with the head of a woman. Regardless of the form, Lechuza is an evil entity and preys without compassion on humans, particularly enjoying small children.

Stories told to children warn them that if they misbehave, or stay out in the night, Lechuza will come to carry them away in order to feast on them. Lechuza lures humans into the darkness by whistling or making the sound of a crying infant. Anyone investigating such sounds in the night, or returning the whistle, are likely to fall prey to the Lechuza's insatiable hunger for carnage.

The word "Lechuza", now alternately spelled Lechusa or La Chusa, is directly translated as "owl" in Spanish; however, this particular word is generally used in the context of a witch in owl form only, not the common bird. The word "tecolote" or "buey" is more often used when referring to the bird. Lechuza also appears frequently in the Latin scientific names for owl species.

Modern tales of Lechuza are less demonic and more bizarre or alien. Sightings exhibit a consistency in regards to size, general appearance, and noises emitted by the creature.
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timeline/major sightings
November 1975: Citizens of Rio Grande City report a large bipedal bird-creature lurking in the shadows of town.

January 1, 1976: Youths Jackie Davies and cousin Tracy Lawson of Harlingen, Texas, witnessed a five-foot (1.5m) tall black bird-creature with a gorilla-like face, a bald head, large wings wrapped tight around its body, a long beak, and large red eyes. The creature produced a piercing sound.

January 2, 1976: Tom Waldon, Jackie Davies' step-father, searched the area of the girls' report and found large three-toed footprints deeply embedded into hardened earth.

January 7, 1976: Upon investigating something large hitting his trailer house, Alverico Guajardo of Brownsville, Texas, observed a four-foot (1.2m) tall bird-creature with black feathers, leathery wings, a long beak, and raging red eyes. The creature made a hideous noise during the encounter.

January 14, 1976: Armando Grimaldo of Raymondville, Texas, investigating the cause of a high-pitched whistling sound in the darkness of the night, was attacked by a large creature with a gorilla's face, leathery skin, and huge red eyes. The creature, winded after the attack, fled the scene by taking flight.

February 24, 1976: Patricia Bryant, Marsha Dahlberg, and David Rendon of San Antonio, Texas, all elementary school instructors, spotted a bird-like creature with a wingspan of 15-20 feet (4.5-6m) glide over the road on which they were driving.

January 1976: Deany and Libby Ford witnessed a huge black bird-like creature they described as a pteranodon with the face of a bat near Brownsville, Texas

January 11, 1976: Jessie Garcia and Vanacio Rodriquez saw a five-foot tall (1.5m) bird-creature standing in water on a ranch near Poteet. The creature took flight, but similar to Mothman reports, the two witnesses did not see the creature flap its wings.

April 17, 1976: June and Vicky Melling of Mawnan, Cornwall, England, were terrified by a bird-man spotted near a church tower.

July 3, 1976: Near possibly the same church in Mawnan, Cornwall, England, Sally Chapman and another girl witnessed a man-sized creature resembling an owl with red glowing eyes and pointed ears and pincers for feet standing in a tree until it rose from the tree into the night.
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suspected hoaxes
There are not many cases of verified intentional hoaxers in the guise of Lechuza, though no doubt it has occurred. The story of Armando Grimaldo is highly suspicious. Grimaldo's clothes were tattered from the alleged attack, but medical exams failed to produce even one scratch.
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proposed explanations
The most obvious explanation for Lechuza remains that it is simply the stuff of children's tales designed by adults to keep children close and safe at night. Sightings of creatures resembling Lechuza prompt a more thorough explanation.

As with other sightings of creatures roughly resembling avians, birds known to exist immediately come to mind as rational explanations for the unknown. Owls, herons, pelicans, condors, and eagles have all been suggested as common birds that might be the cause of many sightings and the few attacks on record, but none of these birds seem to fit the frequent descriptions of leathery skin and gorilla faces.

Texas geologist, Jack Grimm proposed that Lechuza, or Big Bird, might be an uncommon bird such as the Abyssinian ground hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus), the jabiru stork (Jabiru mycteria), or the marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus).

With the consistency of strange traits belonging to Lechuza, there is also a natural inclination to ponder this cryptid's connection with UFO activity, but there is little information to study here. A resemblance to the Mothman of Point Pleasant also causes consideration amongst some cryptozoologists.
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influence on culture
Lechuza continues to be an oral tradition among many Mexican, Mexican-American, and now American families, with younger generations now committing these tales to contemporary mediums. Author Rob Johnson has collected many tales of the Rio Grande Valley, including tales of the Lechuza, in his work Fantasmas: Supernatural Stories by Mexican American Writers .

Many older people of the Rio Grande Valley still speak in hushed tones of the Lechuza if they speak of it at all. Many still fear the evil entity known as Lechuza.
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