They are called “rods,” “skyfish” and sometimes “solar entities”. Although the video evidence is compelling, and truth is that they are probably living creatures, no one quite knows quite what they are. Strictly speaking, they are UFOs – unidentified flying objects. Apart from that, what they really are is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they are cryptozoological creatures – animals that science has not yet identified.
According to Wikipedia: “They are said to be creatures which flit about in the air at such a high speed as to not be seen by the naked eye. However, rods appear to be observational artifacts produced by rapidly flying animals. Practically all sightings of rods are based on video evidence, due to the propensity of video cameras to produce characteristic stroboscopic artifacts when imaging rapidly flying animals, especially insects, but also including birds. Their recent popularity seems to be a result of media exposure in television and in tabloids.”
To some, they are a videographic artifact created by the differential between the frame capture rate of the videocam versus the wingbeat frequency of common insects. Essentially what you see is several wingbeat cycles of an insect such as a moth on each frame of the video, creating the illusion of a “rod” with bulges along its length. The blurred body of the insect as it moves forward forms the rod, and the oscillation of the wings up and down form the fins. This idea is supported in an episode of the History Channel’s series Monster Quest. Near the end of the episode, a rod is captured simultaneously by a traditional video camera and a high-speed camera. While the video recorded by the traditional camera showed a brightly-illuminated sky fish with multiple undulating wings, the high-speed video clearly showed a common moth flying across its field of view.
Despite the difference of opinion on the nature of rods, close examination of the video footage has uncovered a number of consistent features. Analysis reveals that the rods seem to be cylinder-shaped creatures that range in length from about 10 centimeters to 3 feet, and can travel at speeds of up to 900 mph. They appear to fly through the air by using an undulating solid membrane which vibrates extremely rapidly on each side of its body similar to how a squid swims through water.
So, could the ancestors of ancient flying serpents really be rods spotted on documentary film footage? They seem to be everywhere. Are these images appearing on television and in movies actual cryptozoological phenomenon , or just something blurred by a camera? No one knows for sure. So keep your eyes open, and your videotapes rolling.