Some of the pterosaur sightings in the southwest states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are of winged creatures with something like a head crest on the back of the head.
September, 1982, Los Fresnos, Texas
An ambulance driver named James Thompson was stopped while driving on Highway 100 by his sighting of a “large birdlike object” flying low over the area. He described it as black or maybe gray, with a rough texture but no feathers. It had a five- to six-foot wingspan, a hump on the back of its head, and almost no neck at all. After consulting some books to identify the creature, he decided it looked quite a bit like a pterosaur.
From the Book Live Pterosaurs in America:
In mid-2007, a man in New Mexico emailed me about his two sightings. . . . “I live in central [New Mexico]. Fourteen years ago, in [Socorro], N.M., me and a close friend, who now has a masters in biology, were hiking during the midday sun at [a] box canyon and . . . We both looked up to see . . . a large flying animal. It had a 20-30 foot wingspan and was about the same length long. It had a long tail with [a] seeming spike at the end. Its head was very pterodactyl shape with a fluted back pointy head.”
Pterosaur Sighting in Phoenix, Arizona
“I was outside . . . and looking over at the salt river bed that separated my employer from the airport when I saw a very large ptero something swoop (glide) in and land and was spashing in the water. It had no feathers and it was very large! It had what looked like really old worn out leather wings and a thing coming out of the back of its head. I reacted slowly but did run inside and get others to come out and get a pic but it was gone.”
“Pterodactyls” in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas
“I was walking to the small river [in Woodward, Oklahoma] . . . a large animal took off into the air. At first I thought it was an eagle. Then I noticed it was a dinosaur. . . . I stared at the back part of the head because it was exactly like the ones depicted in books. . . . had a long neck and wide wings just like in the movies or in books. It had no feathers and it was flying around and looking downwards into the fields.”