CRYPTIDS
Dusk Walker in L'Aquila Photographs Large Winged Figure; Wildlife Centre Cannot Name It
A Reddit user posting to r/Experiencers consolidates photographs and a wildlife centre's verdict of 'unidentifiable' after an October twilight sighting, while stressing that no unknown creature is being claimed.
L'AQUILA, ITALY — A Reddit user posting to r/Experiencers has gathered several earlier posts into a single account of a sighting said to have occurred at 5:43 PM on Monday, October 26, in a residential district of L'Aquila, Italy. The author writes that, while photographing birds near home, they noticed a figure distinctly larger than the rest.
According to the post, the shape was entirely dark against the twilight, with two small whitish spots in the head region, colder in tone than a cat's eyeshine. The author describes a head tucked between the shoulders, a body vaguely like an adult human's, and very large wings. It was said to glide, lose altitude, regain it with slow wingbeats, and turn in apparent full circles. Nearby birds, the author notes, showed no evident reaction.
The author sent the photographs, taken on a Samsung Galaxy A20 in poor light, to a wildlife centre in Pescara, where they know an employee. By the post's account, the centre could not assign the subject to any species present in Abruzzo, though staff agreed some features recalled a moth. Birds of prey and conventional mammals were, for now, set aside. With the author's consent, the images were to go to a second centre.
The author is careful about what this does and does not mean. Per the post, the centre explained that 'unidentifiable' signifies only that no definite identification was possible, not that the creature is unknown to science. The centre is said to have advised keeping original files intact for their metadata and releasing the pictures gradually, partly to avoid drawing crowds to the area.
The Mothman comparison, the author reports, arose from a magnitude 3.0 earthquake at Barete, in the province of L'Aquila, on October 29. The author acknowledges there is no evidence connecting the two events. Some commenters had also asked whether the photographs were AI-generated; the author says such checks by AI tools are unreliable and offers to publish the metadata.
The post concludes that the author does not claim to have photographed anything paranormal or any unknown animal, only to report what was seen and the assessment received.