Date: 8/25/25 8:26 pm From: Dennis Paulson via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Fwd: August 2025 Update: The Trouble With AI Bird Images
This is, sadly, becoming more and more of a concern. It’s easy to see the good in AI, and it’s becoming easier all the time to see the bad in it.
Dennis Paulson
Seattle
>>
>> Newsletter - August 2025
>>
>> The Trouble With AI Bird Images
>>
>> Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about photorealistic, AI-generated images of birds. Not the cartoonish ones that are easy to spot, but images that could easily be mistaken for real bird photography.
>>
>> My inspiration for this newsletter topic was the image below, which has made the rounds on social media:
>>
>>
>> It’s a great shot of an in-the-flesh Chestnut-backed Chickadee perched on a field guide opened to the exact page for this species. Pretty cool, right?
>>
>> Sure. Maybe… Because right away, I found myself wondering, “Is this an AI-generated image? A fake?”
>>
>> I was dubious.
>>
>> In the case of this chickadee situation, I’m fairly (though not 100%) certain it’s a real photo of a real bird. I did some research and found what I think is the original source, the person who posted it on Reddit <https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/wvu07qwle9bghkwgmd2u7hn6z5zxxi8hw595m/qvh8h7hd8rvrzkbl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS9yL01hZGVNZVNtaWxlL2NvbW1lbnRzLzFpbmEyeXovY29tbWVudC9tY2JkeHI0Lw==>.
>>
>> So it took some actual work—some Internet sleuthing and too much of my valuable time—to determine if the image was real or AI-generated.
>>
>> I sure wish I didn’t have to go through all that trouble.
>>
>> A couple of years ago, AI images of birds just weren’t good enough to cause me this kind of headache. The results were strange and flawed—the body proportions were way off, the feet had too many toes, the wings bent at odd angles, the plumage patterns and colors didn’t match any real species, even with a familiar species like an American Robin. If you were using AI to generate an image of a robin, no matter how many times you tried, you’d never get an anatomically accurate representation.
>>
>>
>> AI-generated bird, circa 2022. Not too convincing. Thanks, I hate it.
>>
>> But now, in 2025, things are different. The images are way better. Many of them are now good enough to fool even experienced birders—myself included—if we don’t slow down and look closely. And that’s why I think it’s time to talk about this issue.
>> From Rainbow Owls to Photorealism
>>
>> Of course, manipulated images aren’t new. Long before AI, we had heavily Photoshopped “rainbow owls” or parrots with impossible colors going viral on Facebook. To most birders, those were obvious fakes. But plenty of casual nature lovers saw them, believed them, and shared them.
>>
>> The difference now is that AI can (at least sometimes) produce birds that actually look real. The toes, the plumage patterns… the whole shebang.
>>
>>
>> AI-generated American Robin, circa 2025. Disturbingly realistic. Even the toes are pretty good.
>> And now such images are flooding social media and other places we search for photos. Stock image sites are practically drowning in AI bird images these days. In the best cases, the platform requires that AI images be labeled as such. But a lot of AI slop is still slipping through the cracks and being passed off as “real.”
>>
>>
>> AI-generated image of a female Allen's Hummingbird.
>> How Do We Tell the Difference?
>>
>> For now, many AI bird images still have giveaways:
>>
>> Anatomy or plumage patterns that are slightly “off.” (The first thing I look at is the toes.)
>>
>> Birds that are too immaculately clean. No dirt or scars or mussed feathers.
>>
>> Backgrounds that look melted or inconsistent or just weirdly ethereal.
>>
>> Sometimes the only clue is that the image looks too perfect. Real bird photography usually has quirks—motion blur, awkward angles, imperfect lighting. When a photo looks like a flawless magazine cover every time, that in itself can be suspicious.
>>
>> But the technology is improving really fast. Soon AI may even learn to mimic those “imperfections,” making detection nearly impossible.
>>
>> There are these AI models that generate increasingly realistic images, but other models are being trained to detect those AI-generated images. It’s a robot arms race! And we don’t know which clanker team will win. Maybe detection tools will keep up. Maybe they won’t.
>>
>> At some point, soon, we’ll need help from the platforms themselves—Meta, X, Instagram, TikTok—to use technology to label AI content automatically… Without just trusting in the “honor system,” which is how things are now. If something is artificially generated, we deserve to know before mistaking it for something from the real world.
>> Why It Matters
>>
>> This isn’t just an annoyance for bird lovers who want to see real birds. There are deeper concerns:
>>
>> Citizen Science: eBird and iNaturalist rely on real images to document species distributions and support conservation. Fake images could skew the data and introduce "noise."
>>
>> Faltering Trust in Media: If we can’t tell what’s real, do we just assume all digital media is fake? This issue is, of course, much wider and more sinister than what's going on with just bird images.
>>
>> Undercutting Real Artists: Because AI-generated bird photos can be cranked out by the thousands almost effortlessly and almost for free, this threatens the careers of talented, hard-working nature photographers.
>>
>> Devaluing Reality: If people are constantly exposed to flawless, fantasy birds, will they become underwhelmed by the real thing? For kids who grow up consuming this kind of media, this could weaken their appreciation of actual flesh-and-blood wildlife.
>>
>> I think about this in the same way I think about junk food. If what we eat day after day is heavily-processed junk food full of sugar, fat, and salt, we might have a hard time appreciating real food that’s actually good for us. Similarly, AI can create images that might be more colorful, more dramatic, and more enticing than photos of real birds. But like junk food, they risk dulling our taste for the real, soul-sustaining thing.
>> The Bigger Picture: Authenticity
>>
>> This problem isn’t limited to bird photos, of course. AI is generating ever more convincing text, video, music, and voices too.
>>
>> For example, it would be fairly easy right now to produce an AI-driven “bird podcast”—with AI doing all the work: writing the script and generating a realistic voice to read it.
>>
>> Would it sound believable? To many listeners, yeah probably. Would it be authentic? No way, José!
>>
>> And this is where I find some hope. I think I have some job security as a podcaster. Because the quirks of being human—the dumb (and unquestionably clever and hilarious) jokes, the personal anecdotes, the consistent thread of one real person speaking to you across years worth of episodes—those are things AI can’t replicate convincingly. Not yet… Hopefully not ever.
>>
>> Which means authenticity is going to matter more than ever. People will crave it. They’ll value real voices, real experiences, and real encounters with the natural world.
>>
>> What We Can Do
>> So where does all this leave us?
>>
>> Well, unfortunately, we need to be more skeptical than ever before. Like the example of me questioning the reality of that Chestnut-backed Chickadee photo.
>> Other things we can do…
>>
>> Sharpen our own eyes: Learn to spot the “field marks” of AI images just like we learn the field marks of birds. Spend time studying real photos and illustrations, so you become very familiar with bird anatomy.
>>
>> Rely on trusted sources: Reputable outlets like National Geographic, PBS, and the BBC. As well as respected photographers and scientific publications. Investigate the source of the image if you can. Legitimate wildlife photographers typically have portfolios, social media histories, and can provide additional shots from the same session. Be suspicious of social media accounts that share only "perfect" bird photos without any biological context, behind-the-scenes content, or variation in quality.
>>
>> Push for transparency: Speak up and demand that platforms require disclosure of AI content.
>>
>> Seek authenticity: If you can’t trust images and other media, you can place more value on having direct experiences in nature. And you can follow creators who are clearly, undeniably human. Like me! 😉
>>
>> We’re entering a weird new world, my friends. If we care about birds, nature, and truth, we’ll need to adapt. But maybe this will push us to appreciate and value the real stuff even more.
>>
>> All the best and all the birds,
>>
>> Ivan
>>
>> Ivan Phillipsen
>> Creator and Host of The Science of Birds
>>
