‘Venice in Quarantine’: Did Flamingos Flock to Quiet Canals?

Quirky or uplifting news was in high demand as the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, which was likely the reason that a Facebook post (“Venice … in quarantine,” archived here) purportedly showing flamingos in the deserted canals of Venice, Italy proved to be so popular:

https://www.facebook.com/christine.sevin.3/posts/10212840515968182

 

The post itself was a riff on the COVID-19 or coronavirus “we are the virus” meme, which generally shows variations of plants and animals (and nature in general) returning to areas normally crowded by humans — such the canals of Venice. Commenters clearly interpreted the image as authentic and unaltered, commenting “wow,” “superb,” “AMAZING,” and “glorious.”

We initially tried a reverse image search to determine the source of the photograph, which would undoubtedly be a popular image if it were real. However, no results for the photograph were found dating back more than a few days as of May 5 2020. We were able to find the possible base photograph here.

Iterations of the Venice canal flamingos also appeared on Twitter:

La llegada de Cisnes Rosados Como no hay movimiento en los canales, ni barcos; llegaron después de años a inundar a la bella Venecia!!algo de bueno tiene la Pandemia!! La naturaleza vuelve a tomar su lugar de antaño!!!! pic.twitter.com/rqoh6wAZdR

— M Ines Katu Carrera 🇨🇱 (@MariaInesCarre4) May 1, 2020

However, we located the image on an Instagram aggregator — suggesting the photograph of the Venice canal flamingos possibly originated there. A late April 2020 post by @mykojaro featured the image and the following automatically translated caption:

When people stay at home, there is an opportunity for other residents of the city to express themselves. And Are you still quarantined or have you returned to normal?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ejmc1DVwe/

That post was not shared in English; occasionally misattributions and mistranslations fuel the spread of altered images as contextual information dropped off when posts spread to other languages. In that post, the user credited another Instagram user (@hobopeeba) for the Venice flamingos image.

It appears @hobopeeba first shared the photograph of flamingos in the canals of Venice in late April 2020:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_W3yPqqP16/

An initial clue appeared in the first words of the post: “Art 2020.” The balance of the caption appeared in both English and Russian, reading “when people stay at home, [the] city is filled with other residents.”

In the first comment we saw, a fellow Instagram user asked in English if the photograph was “real,” that is to say unaltered or not a work of creative fiction. In a response, @hobopeeba reiterated that the image was artwork:

A purported photograph of a group (or a “pat“) of flamingos in the canals of Venice spread as part of a larger notion wildlife was returning to deserted cities during COVID-19 quarantines across the world. A prominent early iteration was shared without an automatic translation to English, and many Facebook users believed the image was unaltered. However, its creator @hobopeeba clarified the image was “art” created by them, not a real photograph of flamingos flocking across the quiet canals of Venice.