I recorded this video in Colorado Springs when visiting family. I genuinely was a bit freaked out when recording this but I'm sure there has to be an explanation or at least another angle out there somewhere. It was traveling with the wind fairly fast and within a flight path above Cheyenne Mountain. I've shown it to a few people who think it could just be plastic or a creepy kite but I'm not convinced. If anybody has any idea what this is that would be great. It was taken on June 13th 2025, at 4:51pm through a pair of binoculars using an iPhone. There were two of them that day at the same time but we only caught one on film. I've tried to use sitrec to find it but I'm brand new to the tool so I figure someone far smarter than me could understand how to find this thing in publicly available data. If anyone can find any information on this please let me know .
What is this and has anyone seen this before?
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Possibly this kite or one of the similar ones reported in several Colorado Springs threads, shot from downwind:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoSprings/comments/pfisfj/the_ominous_kite_returns/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoSprings/s/9YgNhecb2V
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoSprings/comments/oswk16/mysterious_object_caught_on_video_kktv_its_a_kite/
- https://www.kktv.com/2021/07/26/what-is-it-mysterious-object-caught-video-above-colorado-springs/
- "Been seeing these for over a year, it's hilarious how much people freak out. I've seen people pull over on I-25 to get out and take photos."
- "It's usually flown just north of Circle and Monterey. He usually has 3 nice kites flying with this one being the most distinctive."
JMartJr
Senior Member.
I suspect it is one of these:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l58H9JCL7fI?feature=share
Source: https://youtu.be/0Ea0xsPjinM
If so, there is a kite up above it somewhere, they are not self-lifting. Also, if so, it will be a much longer/bigger one than these examples, to allow for more convolutions as seen the one in the OP video.
But @jdog might be right, it might be a kite with a long tail or tentacles, streaming back towards the camera.
Edited to add last two paragraphs, hit "post" too soon. Edited again to replace "than" with "as seen," somehow messed that up originally.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l58H9JCL7fI?feature=share
Source: https://youtu.be/0Ea0xsPjinM
If so, there is a kite up above it somewhere, they are not self-lifting. Also, if so, it will be a much longer/bigger one than these examples, to allow for more convolutions as seen the one in the OP video.
But @jdog might be right, it might be a kite with a long tail or tentacles, streaming back towards the camera.
Edited to add last two paragraphs, hit "post" too soon. Edited again to replace "than" with "as seen," somehow messed that up originally.
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deirdre
Senior Member
2 squiggley ones or was the second one different shape?
the el paso county kite festival was held the next day. a practice kite?
its in the opposite direction...what direction was the wind blowing?
JMartJr
Senior Member.
Thank you for the endorsement -- in fairness, then, I'll point out that I am reasonably convinced it is a kite-related thing, and possibly one of the Catherine-wheels/snakes I posted, the ones going around in a squiggly loop. But it could be another sort of kite -- in @Mick West 's stabilized video it looks like it might after all be an octopus or something similar, as @jdog posted -- but I can't bring myself to call it for sure . Call me at 90% sure on it being a kite, not confident exactly which sort.
@deirdre finding the festival the next day seems to me to be good supporting evidence that it is some sort of kite!
I've "asked the wind" if anybody who might have been there among my group of kite folks can claim and identify the kite involved. If I get an answer, I'll share it.
Meanwhile, @Shade, if there is something in what you saw that might rule OUT a kite, that would be worth knowing.
deirdre
Senior Member
how big does the lift kite need to be for one of these things. this vid really moves like the OP video. and none of your kites have the snake head.. i like the head.
@Shade where was the second "kite" in relation to the "kite" your video? and again was it a different shape or was it another squiggley thing?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNhfzpIDv6Y
add: 50$ ouch if it was actually freeflying. hopefully it wasnt really over the mountain and still tethered if it was one of these.
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JMartJr
Senior Member.
Depends a bit on the wind, but not huge. People tend to use para-sleds or parafoils
ranging from maybe 4 feet across on up -- bigger ones let you lift in less wind, or lift more stuff.
But I've seen them under big deltas or almost anything with some "ooomph" in the lift department. Not a "casual day at the beach" kite, you'd probably want to anchor it rather than fly it by hand for long as it will have some pull, but not excessively big...
People also fly Catherine wheels (so named because the classically fly as a rotating hoop)
At some point, somebody noticed that if you pull the bridle back through the middle and fly them "inside out," instead of expanding into a circle they bunch up in the middle and do weird undulating stuff while rotating.
If you are interested, you can also fly them from a banner pole... which of course I cannot find a picture of now! But like this:
Online or brick-and-mortar kite shops could match up a lifter and a ring for interested parties, specify that you do want the snakey one, standard wheels do the wiggle when inverted but purpose built ones will do it better.
The bigger the circumference, the more intricately convoluted their wriggling can be. And wind speed impacts it, they spin faster and do more stuff in heavier wind.
People also fly Catherine wheels (so named because the classically fly as a rotating hoop)
At some point, somebody noticed that if you pull the bridle back through the middle and fly them "inside out," instead of expanding into a circle they bunch up in the middle and do weird undulating stuff while rotating.
If you are interested, you can also fly them from a banner pole... which of course I cannot find a picture of now! But like this:
Online or brick-and-mortar kite shops could match up a lifter and a ring for interested parties, specify that you do want the snakey one, standard wheels do the wiggle when inverted but purpose built ones will do it better.
Somebody in Germany, iirc, thought of adding the snake head, in German the piece is called a "ringleshclange." I guess not everybody likes snakes, you see more without the head than with these days...
The bigger the circumference, the more intricately convoluted their wriggling can be. And wind speed impacts it, they spin faster and do more stuff in heavier wind.
Note: The image from Ali Express you posted is three of them close together hanging from the line of one kite. You can see the color differences, but they are framed to look like one bigger more intricate piece. They are arranged from smaller to larger, you can see that as they get larger going up the line, they get more convoluted...
Edit to add final note there...
JMartJr
Senior Member.
As I look at Mick's stabilized version over and over, I'm becoming more convinced that it might be something like an octopus kite rather than the rotating snake.
For one thing, the speed at which it moves feels similar to the speed at which a larger octopus waves its arms about:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2pRKzDszQ9A?feature=share
I am hesitant, though, as there do not seem to be as many tails/tentacles as an octo would have -- so maybe something with 2-3 really long tails... can't think of something that fits, so it might be a one-off homemade piece. Hopefully somebody will let me know it was theirs, and what it was!
EDIT: Of course, as soon as I posted I recalled something that might fit the two really long tails idea. Perhaps something like this:
Source: https://youtu.be/XsoYAg79imU?t=153
For one thing, the speed at which it moves feels similar to the speed at which a larger octopus waves its arms about:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2pRKzDszQ9A?feature=share
I am hesitant, though, as there do not seem to be as many tails/tentacles as an octo would have -- so maybe something with 2-3 really long tails... can't think of something that fits, so it might be a one-off homemade piece. Hopefully somebody will let me know it was theirs, and what it was!
EDIT: Of course, as soon as I posted I recalled something that might fit the two really long tails idea. Perhaps something like this:
Source: https://youtu.be/XsoYAg79imU?t=153
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FatPhil
Senior Member.
4' is petty tiny. Im wondering whether the cheeky margins of kite fanaticism might revel in having an almost invisible lifting foils for their attention-grabbing lower component?
JMartJr
Senior Member.
Some do -- pilot kites used over big show pieces are generally just one color and thus somewhat boring, so as not to attract attention away from the Big Show. But for many, if you want to attract attention and put on a show, everything needs to contribute -- hence the bright multicolored examples of lifters seen above, which are often paired with spinning tails and the like. "Anything worth doing is worth over-doing."
Mendel
Senior Member.
I hate how the forum update broke the display of images in quotes. Klick the attachment on the right to see a long black worm; if partially deflated, it may fold in on itself.
JMartJr
Senior Member.
Would it wriggle and twist like that, if untethered? There'd be little air movement going past it...
(At least some of the commercially available ones come with a thin monofilament tether, but maybe 20' long or so. This looks to be on a much longer tether than that, if it is in fact tethered as I think it us.)
The movement reminds me of the balloon arch UFO: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/wh...-sort-of-orb-out-of-it-after-splitting.13802/
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