This Video Doesn’t Show Fire Spewing Bird Responsible for LA Wildfires

Neither is this video recent nor does it show real visuals of a bird spewing fire.

Fact-Check |The video is old and has been made using VFX tools.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of a bird appearing to shoot laser and setting a small portion of his surrounding on fire is being shared on social media platforms to claim as recent visuals from Los Angeles, United States.

What have users said?: Those sharing the clip have said, "A bird started the fire in Los Angeles, USA."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(You can view archives of similar claims here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The claim is false. The video could be traced back to 2020 and was created using different visual effects by Brazilian VFX artist Fabrício Rabachim.

How did we find that out?: We divided the viral clip into several keyframes using the help of video verification tool named 'InVID' and performed a reverse image search.

• A Google search indicated that the bird is called 'Southern Lapwing'.

• Also known as Quero-Quero in Brazil, the bird is found in different parts of South America.

The bird was identified as Southern Lapwing.

(Source: Google/Screenshot)

• We compared a keyframe from the viral clip to a visual of Southern Lapwing uploaded on Wikimedia Commons and found that both of them appeared similar.

A comparison clearly highlighted the similarities.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

Finding the original video: Team WebQoof conducted multiple keyword searches using different phrases.

• Using "quero-quero" as keywords, we found the same video published on an unverified YouTube channel named 'Fabricio Rabachim'.

• It was published on 14 December 2020 and it was titled, "Quero-Quero Power."

• As per the channel's bio, Rabachim is a self-taught Visual Effects (VFX) professional.

What did the creator say?: We had previously reached out to Rabachim in 2021, who said that the bird is famous for "making a lot of noise and flying close to people to protect its nest."

"I filmed this video in a park here in the city and the bird made a very interesting move for me to apply an effect, as the bird is already known to be intimidating, I decided to add laser rays in its eyes as a joke and study visual effects at the same time (sic)."

Fabrício Rabachim

A second wind: The Quint's fact-checking team had previously debunked the same clip in 2021, when it was shared with a similar claim. You can read our fact-check here.

The report was published on 18 November 2021.

(Source: The Quint/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the video is old and is being shared with a false claim.

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