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Hoopoe or Hoax (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter RichardBaatsen
- Start date
Hard to tell. How big is that chair? 
Stonefaction
Dundee Birding....(target 150 in 2024).
Some phone cameras do produce that weird squiggly texture effect (especially when zoomed in - I think). May be a genuine sighting just photographed with the only camera 'to hand' with the end result looking like that.
Yes, this is so (not so sure that it's phones specifically) - and that can certainly be why the grass is like this.
That peculiar big white swirl in the wing though is a different matter - and the whole wing-pattern looks unreal - but yet somehow familiar, and makes me suspect I've seen this before. Where's this photo taken from?
As mentioned by Mummy, size relative to the chair also seems odd - as if the hoopoe is the size of a sparrow.
Dodgy.
Stonefaction
Dundee Birding....(target 150 in 2024).
Perhaps an AI generated image? That might explain the weirdness of the chair and relative size of the 'bird'.
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
Can an AI generator produce low quality images? I've actually changed my mind, I do think the image has been tampered with but what sort of tampering can cause the weird swirl that is seen on the hoopoe?
Stonefaction
Dundee Birding....(target 150 in 2024).
The one I tried a month or two ago did produce fairly poor images but I suppose if you ask an AI to generate pictures in the style of a low quality phone picture then it should be able to (I'm speculating as I've only tried using one once). Why anyone would want to however, is a different question.
moose1991
Alces alces
Where did you find that photo ?
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'm not seeing anything weird other than low-quality pic effects. The Hoopoe is the right size and the pattern is within expected. The lawn in the background probably belongs to a vicar, which would confirm the sighting.
John
John
Edwin Sapatsch
Well-known member
Feasably genuine. This effect (The background in particular) is often the result of overdoing image sharpening with programs like 'Topaz - gigapixel Ai' and the like
_pauls
Well-known member
Totally agree - overprocessing (whether intentional post-processing or side effect of camera software) where the algorithm tries to make sense of what it sees and creates missing pixels that make sense to it. I have seen exactly that with Topaz AI tools
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
Richard is the County Recorder for Gloucestershire so I suspect he often gets sent poor images of birds noted by non-birders.
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The BulbMogul
Well-known member
The BulbMogul
Well-known member
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
I’ve seen a hoopoe perch on the top of an old village church.
dantheman
Bah humbug
... I've seen Hoopoe perch on rooftops, trees (they nest in holes in both after all), windowsills, picnic tables and backs of chairs etc in France.
Can't see why there isn't anything wrong with it being a poor quality shot as mentioned ... saying that a second image of the bird in a different pose would surely clinch it and rule out/in a paper model of a Hoopoe etc ... ;-)
Can't see why there isn't anything wrong with it being a poor quality shot as mentioned ... saying that a second image of the bird in a different pose would surely clinch it and rule out/in a paper model of a Hoopoe etc ... ;-)
The BulbMogul
Well-known member
Hoopoe in Mannar, SriLanka feeding chicks..
Very nice. Do your posts illustrate specific points which help with this ID question?
