Weird Birds

In the waning days of September 2023, a spooky trend arose, rather spontaneously, among social media circles of the saurian persuasion. Many users began reporting sightings of “weird birds” when checking outside, or even inside their houses; accompanied by semi-obscured snapshots of what seemed to be prehistoric beasts intruding into our comfortable modern lives…

These were of course staged images (most often of dromaeosaurs, AKA raptors, but sometimes pterosaurs and other creatures), presented as if the users had simply stumbled across a living animal, but many of these got wildly creative. They ranged from simple hand drawn scenes, to photo manipulation, to full on physical props and even stories spanning across long threads. I felt there was something special enough about this trend that I decided to do something rather different for this blog, and curate the moment as best I could so it could be further appreciated in the future. The most commonly repeated meme within this trend, sometimes expressed as a hashtag, is the simply descriptor of most of these mysterious interlopers as “weird birds”, and so we got a name for the phenomenon. But how did it start? Allow me to begin, as prehistoric media often does, with the ancestors that preceded our moment of interest…

(As this is VERY different from my usual fare, I feel it necessary to include a content warning for gore and language. If that’s not your thing, I recommend checking out one of the other bits of paleomedia I’ve reviewed.)

In certain corners of the collective consciousness of the “Paleosphere” (a common term for the mix of prehistory enthusiasts and professionals who follow each other across multiple social media platforms), a general milieu has been brewing that posits that an ideal horror story could be made involving dinosaurs with very little “monsterfication”. That is to say, the possible and even probable range of behaviors and appearances of some dinosaurs have the potential, in the right circumstances, to terrify audiences on a much deeper level than the general chaos of your typical Jurassic Park movie. Early in 2023, paleonerds were treated to a pair of creations that both felt like revelations of just what the perfect version of something like this might be.

First came the chilling MIMIC, a one-page comic by Julian Francis Miholics‘s (AKA pansybeast or pansylair), which I’ve posted above. It ponders the possibility of whether dromaeosaurs might have had mimicry abilities on par with that of their modern relatives like corvids, parrots, lyrebirds, and more, and whether they might have been able to use such an ability to lure more victims to them. The slow reveal as your eye scrolls down the page absolutely made my skin crawl, as I realized the cries for help were coming from the raptors the whole time (or perhaps, even more creepily, they instead supersede the hapless human’s cries at some unknown point)!

Hardly a month later, we were treated to an a truly excellent reel by Jayson Duria (AKA Wobbly Works). While one might call it more of a demo than a short film, its 14 second runtime feels much longer than it is, due to the immersive tension it manages to create within this tight confine. As well-constructed as the entire segment is, I think the dramatic tension is most strongly tied to that unsettling head tilt the raptor does that is at once equal parts Exorcist and bird of prey, as it spots our POV protagonist. It’s feels at once both alien and yet thoroughly natural, in a way that makes the threat of this animal feel very real.

There were a few more possible antecedents, some of which I might mention later, but for now, let’s move on to our star feature. Even as I began to write this post, I assumed the current “weird birds” meme had popped up somewhat randomly between several accounts simultaneously, but apparently the horror story thread posted by Archesuchus more or less singlehandedly jumpstarted this entire trend! Starting with a photo of a dromaeosaur mask he had made, peering creepily through a door window, he began to weave an ongoing story about being stalked by unexplained prehistoric beasts. I highly recommend reading it yourself (starting here), as it is much more engrossing in its original context rather than recounted second hand.

I don’t want to ruin the fun by sharing too much here, anyway, though I will note that if you are the type that avoids Twitter, you might get confused by certain breaks in the thread. This isn’t a criticism of Archesuchus’s presentation; indeed, given the semi-ARG nature of the story, it only adds to the immersion for it to be presented in this “unpristine” sort of way, but just be prepared to occasionally go looking through different branching subthreads.

After the bold first post, the story ramps back up slowly after that, as the apparently spooked creature retreats to study our protagonist for an uncertain amount of time, though its clicks and warbles remain, and its eyes glint occasionally in the dark. We also learn the neighbor child has apparently had some interaction with the creature(s) as well, with significant consequences later on…

Things take a truly dark turn as some juvenile raptors (or perhaps simply a smaller species) draw attention to themselves by fighting over something on the patio…

I’ll be honest, I was one of the people who got taken in for a brief moment by this photo! The visceral horror of it has a way of short circuiting the brain, which proved especially true when this tweet left its target audience, which is probably why I saw it in isolation before reading the whole thread.

The tragedy of the poor child’s fate is heightened as it begins to seem increasingly likely that the foot likely belonged to the neighbor child who shared the drawing with our protagonist previously. It seems particularly apparent after the discovery of another drawing the child made of himself feeding hot dogs to the raptors, apparently explaining their persistence in remaining nearby and their attempts to make their way into more houses. In perhaps the most spine-tingling moment of the entire story so far, we finally get full confirmation of the neighbors’ fate in the most horrifying way possible, as the raptors begin trying to lure our hapless protagonist outside by mimicking the last voices they heard… that of the neighbor boy’s father… and the boy himself.

I’ll leave things there so as not to spoil the rest of the ongoing story, but suffice it to say, Archesuchus did a masterful job with this. It’s no wonder people responded so enthusiastically to it, and even began emulating it to varying degrees. Archesuchus was elated by the response, and shared a thank-you post featuring the dromaeosaur prop, which looks a lot cuter and less threatening when not stalking you from the other side of a darkened, all-too-flimsy-looking door!

As I mentioned previously, this thread kicked off a wave of users getting in on the action, which included some extra love for a few creative pieces that actually preceded this trend, but got new life in the flurry of fresh excitement. Starting with a few of the latter, CoolioArt reposted a Deinonychus he had modeled in Blender, which I thought was a physical model at first glance! Natee Himmapaan reposted a dromaeosaur and a Quetzalcoatlus devouring a recent meal; the former now given the title “Dénouement”, in reference to the likely outcome of many of these “sightings”! Aldrich Hezekiah (AKA Kiabugboy) uniquely shared a non-reptilian creature in the form of the massive griffinfly Meganeura stuck near a doorway. There’s something that’s almost so mundanely familiar about this one, as my own front porch seems to gather bugs in some kind of instinctual trap, where they can’t seem to figure out that they can’t push through the brick corner, and so I could almost feel myself in the viewer’s place for this one.

These older pictures notably do not have quite the same emphasis on the unsettling or the horrifying, which are much more explicitly the focus in the newer wave directly inspired by Archesuchus. In particular one will notice the frequent nighttime setting, as well as the occasional much more direct sense of danger. There are for too many for me to even begin to adequately cover; while I had delusions of grandeur of fully curating this moment, I think I will have to be content with a general overview! I definitely recommend spending some time in the “Paleosphere” yourself to find more, especially as I largely focused on Twitter posts for this article, but doubtless one can find others not cross-posted from other platforms. I’ve included here posts from Bornulhu, Dominik Hammelsbruch, Paleonyx, Miku, RJ Palmer, Tyler Greenfield (who amusingly photoshopped a somewhat infamous Quetzalcoatlus model that has already been memed for its bizarre and somewhat creepy posture), SaurianCYH, Callum Pursall, Kiracuriee, EvilViergacht, Aberrantologist, & XtinctDesign, who uniquely depicted a herd of dicynodonts rather than the usual saurians! I hope you’ll forgive me for posting multiple from Emily Stepp, especially since I will have inevitably left some others out! Be sure to click to enlarge these pics!

One of the few others to tell something of a story with their images is a trail cam series by Orribec, which depicts a raptor stealing fruit from a deer bait site, gradually attracting more of its kind as they become acclimated to the free food.

Lastly, if seeing all this has YOU excited to get in on the action, concept and paleoartist RJ Palmer has announced an art challenge on his Discord server for anyone who wants to submit something in this theme! (I tend to get a little overwhelmed by Discord for some reason, and so I am not super familiar with its workings; if the link I provided doesn’t work, try clicking it in RJ’s Twitter bio instead.) Fittingly enough, Archesuchus will be a guest judge for the entries, bring everything full circle!

Archesuchus himself also posted a Draw This In Your Style prompt for his original image, which I imagine could provide some inspiration as a secondary prompt for RJ’s contest. I’ve seen some pretty creative responses so far! Here’s just a few, by Kiracuriee, zucchini, J Stocky, DiceDragonDan, wilmilky, Noisy Bones, ImGhostKid, Dani Mays, ajstinx, and some somewhat more interpretive pieces by Nebula & Bonpland. Participants have until October 22nd to submit their entries, so get creating!

There’s SO much more I could have included here! I was losing my mind trying to find everything I possibly could, and angsting about whether to include everything I could find, but I had to accept I would inevitably leave things out one way or another. I settled for what I have here, but please, please, please, go look into this yourself! Even beyond what I didn’t include at the time of writing, more will doubtless be created in the future (especially after RJ’s contest concludes). It’s absolutely worth the time it takes to look through it all. Stuff like this is really what makes social media worth it. It may be a bit of a hellscape of misinformation and misanthropy, but if you can find a good corner with decent people who share a fun interest, then it has the potential to shine a bit of a bright spot in the darkness. Such has been my personal experience with the “Paleosphere”, and I hope plenty of others find something to enjoy as well. I’ll leave you with my own attempt to contribute to the trend, featuring an “incident” in my garden railroad.

“A fire started by a trainwreck has driven Something out of the forest and into town… there’s a lot of Weird Birds in this area, but only the old timers still recognize the Old Man of the Woods.”

(Here’s an alternate shot where the real! flames are more obvious, but the sky doesn’t look as dark as I would like. I can’t quite choose between these two!)

P.S. – now that I’ve finally gotten my hands on a copy, I have to show some love for The Bone Cabin Chronicles here as well! While as best as I can tell, it has had a minimal impact on the Paleosphere so far, and thus unlikely to have significantly influenced the Weird Birds saga, it is just as delightfully creepy. Inspired by The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a macabre alphabet book by appropriately named illustrator Edward Gorey, The Bone Cabin Chronicles depicts various prehistoric beasts falling victim to all manner of gruesome deaths. While not for the faint of heart, it has much to appeal to fans of creepy primeval creatures!