The chickcharney (also known as the chickcharnie or chickcharnee) is a

legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses ...

in the

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

Andros Island Andros Island is an archipelago within the Bahamas, the largest of the Bahamian Islands. Politically considered a single island, Andros in total has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros consis ...

in the

Bahama Islands The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

. It is said to live in the forests, is furry or feathered, and about tall, with an ugly appearance resembling an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

. In common legend, if a traveler meets a chickcharney and treats it well, they will be rewarded with good luck, while treating a chickcharney badly will result in bad luck and hard times. Sightings have continued into the present. It is said that the birds make their nest by bringing several pine trees together and making their nest in the middle. Several of these tree formations have been sighted.

''Tyto pollens''

A forester from Oregon, Bruce G. Marcot, claimed in 1995 that the legend of the chickcharney is based on the prehistoric Bahamian barn owl ''

Tyto pollens ''Tyto pollens'' is an extinct giant barn owl which lived in the Bahamas during the last Ice Age. Description It is only known from the partial remains of three individuals which have been collected on the islands of Little Exuma (the site was m ...

'', although the fossil remains have never been found on Andros and the youngest fossil bones are from a layer before the arrival of the first humans, the

Lucayans The Lucayan people ( ) were the original residents of the Bahamas before the European conquest of the Americas. They were a branch of the Taínos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The Lucayans were the first indigenous Ame ...

References

{{reflist Caribbean legendary creatures Legendary birds Bahamian culture