Thunderbird

Thunderbird is the tenth episode of the first season of the thriller horror docudrama found-footage television series Lost Tapes. It originally aired on Animal Planet on February 3rd, 2009, along with Megaconda and was directed by Douglas Segal.

According to fans, this episode is considered to be one of the worst, as it is panned for its cheesy acting and bad-writing. One of the scenes included Kevin and Paxton leaving behind Cole in a ditch, which received some criticism.

Plot
On November 16, 2007, brothers Kevin and Cole Weller sneaked away from their home in Chicago, Illinois to meet up with their friend Paxton Reed to film a skateboarding video of themselves with their parents' video camera at a place called "The Ditch." Paxton doubts the abilities of Cole, the younger of the brothers, but Kevin convinces him that they should take him along.

They enter a restricted area of a national park to do so. As night falls, they leave the paved road and enter the forest itself. Cole goes to relieve himself in a bush as Paxton taunts him about being scared. Strange calls can be heard, but Kevin and Paxton ignore them until a large bird of prey swoops down on them, blocking out the remaining sources of light for a brief moment.

Cole returns, but thinks they're trying to scare him when they tell him about the bird. A short while later, they discover a dead possum in a tree, which they poke with a stick before leaving. They finally come to The Ditch at about 8:30 at night, and Paxton decides to tell them a ghost story about a kid simply disappearing in The Ditch. They begin filming their video, re-energized from finally reaching their destination, but Paxton startles Cole as he tries to perform a skateboarding trick, which causes him to fall and break his leg. They reluctantly leave Cole to get help, but leave behind a cell phone for Cole to use.

As they head for help, Paxton tries to come up with excuses so that he and Kevin do not get in trouble, but they suddenly hear a screech from above them and receive a call from Cole, who is asking for help before they suddenly hear another screech over the phone. They run back to find Cole is missing, though his shoe is hanging from a tree branch. Cole was found the next day at the bottom of a freeway overpass half a mile from The Ditch, battered and bruised but still alive. He has no recollection of what happened to him, and the mysterious animal was never found.

Clips in the episode discuss numerous large winged predators of the past and present and injuries from skateboarding.