Fakery
Why isn't reality good enough?
(Listen to the radio version here.)
For years after I got my first Golden guide, I loved paging through Arthur Singer’s beautiful illustrations, imagining seeing these amazing birds in real life. Like the Sears Christmas catalogs of my childhood, I thought of this field guide as my “wish book.” But unlike many of the toys in the Sears wish book, the birds in real life never disappointed. Indeed, many were even more wonderful and beautiful than their depictions. Imagine seeing an honest-to-goodness Whooping Crane!
Pileated Woodpecker!
Roseate Spoonbill!
One by one, I saw most of the birds in that wonderful wish book over the next twenty-some years. But at some point after I saw my 600th bird in the ABA area in 1999, I started thinking about faraway places. I knew how stunning a Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s throat was.
Could those tropical hummingbirds named for gemstones—topaz, emerald, amethyst, beryline, and more—all be equally, stunningly brilliant?
Was a real-life Resplendent Quetzal truly resplendent?
The more I traveled, the more amazing birds I saw. Honest-to-goodness toucans!
Cock-of-the-rocks!
Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill!
Cuban Tody!
Gray Crowned-Crane!
This year I finally saw a Jabiru, the largest stork in the Americas, and it did not disappoint.
Meanwhile, I’ve still not seen every bird in North America this side of the Mexican border, but I finally did see California Condors in 2011, and I saw them again in 2013 and 2019.
As of November 2025, my life list stands at 2,332. That’s a LOT of birds, but less than a quarter of the species in the world. I’ve never seen a wild ostrich or kookaburra, that ginormous African stork the Shoebill, any wild penguin, and so many more. But the birds I have seen, including the everyday species, are enough to fill my mind and heart with beauty and joy.
Because reality is so much better than I imagined before I started birding, I’m endlessly irritated when I see AI-created bird pictures, which are now ubiquitous on Facebook. Based on the comments, a good many people can’t distinguish fake birds from real ones, and some do not want to be told that a photo they’re sharing is fake. One woman sharing AI images of completely fabricated birds got furious with me for saying they weren’t real. I just don’t understand a world filled with real natural wonders but also with people—ostensibly the smartest animals out there—who can’t recognize real from fake.
I suppose it’s understandable that some people prefer fake nature at a time when so many apparently prefer fake humans, too—bodies nipped and tucked and implanted with silicone; faces injected with neurotoxins and surgically sculpted to achieve a plastic sheen like a Barbie doll come to life. According to Wikipedia, there’s even a name for that plasticized result: Mar-a-lago face.
It doesn’t affect me at all what people do to their own personal bodies and faces, but whenever anyone uses AI for any purpose, it exacts a toll on all of us due to those enormous data centers that use vast quantities of electricity and water, damaging air and water quality and directly contributing to climate change.
The sad thing is, even when we realize this, it’s hard for us as individuals to avoid or minimize AI and cloud technology in our lives. It’s ubiquitous—in many of our “smart” appliances, GPS and mapping tools, online games, and everyday software and apps, including the apps, cameras, and recording equipment that identify plants and animals in real life by sound or photos. It’s sad enough that AI is used for fakery; it’s tragically ironic when it helps us identify real things in real time even as that very identification process puts them ever more at risk.
Totally agree! So many Facebook photos that seem too good to be true are, indeed, not true and not real. There’s so much real beauty in the world if people would just get outside and see it. Sitting inside and posting fake images is not helping build awareness of the tragic need for environmental support.
I try very hard to determine if a photo is real or AI or otherwise manipulated. Especially if it’s of a bird or bird behavior. It can be difficult sometimes to distinguish so I understand when others don’t or can’t, I’m with you, though, in that I don’t understand when people don’t want to or care to know if a photo is real or fake. Our existing natural world has much beauty already! Admire that instead!
On another note, how ever did you get such a great photo of a bee hummingbird? I was in Cuba in March and that bird was at the top of my list to see. I saw it but was somewhat disappointed because it never sat still long enough for me to get a decent look in my bins let alone try to get a photo. But I did see it!