Very close lightning strikes at Peak Crossing, Australia, November 12, 2016. Turn the sound up!

  / jameschambersimagery  

In this video, it doesn't appear that the lightning struck the bird, but it is majorly affected by it. Perhaps some sort of current that can't be seen in the footage affects it...or... it was just the sudden gunshot thunder that did it. Certainly it wasn't struck directly, otherwise it would have fallen to the ground pretty quickly.

The cloud to ground strike you see in the video is actually one of 2 that struck simultaneously. The other struck much closer but out of shot on the right hand side - and you can hear the 'gunshot' thunder associated with it. I'd estimate the lightning that can be seen in the video is at least 4-5km away.

The bird appeared to survive the shock, but who knows if it saw the day out. Fingers crossed it did!

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