Case file · Folklore / legend
Impundulu, the lightning bird
In Xhosa, Mpondo and Zulu belief, the impundulu is a black-and-white bird the size of a person that summons lightning and is said to drink blood.
1880 CE · -31.60, 28.80 · status: legend
The account
It is often described as the familiar of a witch, passed from mother to daughter, and lightning strikes are said to mark where it laid its eggs. Healers are called to find and remove the eggs. The year here is an approximate date for the first written records by missionaries and ethnographers in the 19th century.
The sceptical view
A belief about lightning, illness and witchcraft rather than a reported animal.