Early on April Fool's Day a post was made on several social media platforms. The post contained photographs of what appeared to be a possibly extinct bird nestled in grass near a pond at the Andrew H. Hulsey State Fish Hatchery in Hot Springs.
The bird was a dead ringer for the Eskimo curlew, a species last verifiably seen in 1962, when one was photographed along a beach at Galveston, Texas.
The same pictures went by email to more than 50 serious bird watchers. The email asked them to share the pictures and to identify the brown and white bird, which was only an inch or two smaller than a crow.
Within the next 16 hours more than 40 people replied.
Most of those respondents had used an app that birders carry on their phones to identify a bird from a photograph or audio recording. The apps claimed that the bird pictured was a godwit, or a whimbrel, or a willet, or a sandpiper — birds commonly seen along the seashore.
None of the apps correctly identified the curlew. Two of the humans did.
Later on April Fool's Day, the prankster made a post on ARbird-L, a bird-discussion liserv, under the subject heading: "Unusual Bird Stumps Arkansas Birders":
"Arkansas has good birders, but today they struck out. Yesterday, I took photographs of a bird at the Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery. I sent one or two of the images to about 40 of my friends, some who regularly post on this listserv, asking them to ID it for me. Most of them got it wrong. Many said they put my image in Merlin or one of the other programs that use facial recognition technology to identify birds and they got it wrong too. It's not a whimbrel, or a willet, or a godwit, or a sandpiper from another continent. It is an American bird.
"I photographed this bird as it was perched on the ground yesterday. Today I went back to the hatchery and, can you believe it? — took a picture of it as it was flying. It is even a better picture than those of the bird on the ground. So if you don't figure it out by Sunday afternoon, I'll post that flying image that I'm holding back on for now. For I think the image might have significant commercial and/or scientific value.
"What is it?
"For a size reference, the posts on the 'No Fishing' sign are 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches thick."
The prankster signed his post "Peace and Birds."
CAUSE FOR CAUTION
That popular birding apps like Merlin did not reliably identify an unusual bird is somewhat disconcerting. If bird watchers become dependent on such devices, the databases built upon the observations of citizen-scientists, which the birdwatchers contribute toward, could be similarly flawed or given unjustifiable credence.
Others who received emails or read the posts were not so quick to treat them as genuine.
Some, like Joe White, who lives near Washington, D.C., replied succinctly when asked to share the posts with others on the East Coast, "I will (remembering today's date of course). April Fool."
[Gallery not showing? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/411prank/]
David Luneau, the videographer who taped a bird suspected of being an ivory-billed woodpecker, saw through the whole thing too. He replied tersely and correctly, "I'm nobody's shorebird expert, but I would guess that it's the same carving of an Eskimo Curlew in all the photos." He added a smiley face emoji.
SURELY YOU MUST BE JOKING
By two days after April Fool's Day, more than 140 people had connected with the prankster via email. And presumably many more had seen the posts on Facebook. He had played the ruse long enough, so he posted this message on ARbird under the subject heading "April Fowl Joke":
"The photos of the bird that were posted on ARbird and several other social media platforms last Friday and purported to have been taken near Hot Springs were an 'April Fowl' joke. The bird depicted in the photograph is not a live bird, but a wooden carving. The carving was done by Dean Hurliman, notable wood carver of extinct birds. ...
"Only about 25% of the 140 people, who upon reading the posts and responding to me, detected that it was a decoy and not a real bird. Only six people recognized it as an Eskimo curlew. Among the many guesses were: whimbrel, godwit, sandpiper, dowitcher, snipe and willet. Many different images were posted to different people and platforms, and the poses and quality of the photos of the carving were altered in ways that might account for some of the variety of species identified. ...
"Since many of you did not accept that the standing Eskimo curlew was real, would you believe it if you saw one flying? OK, here it is. Peace and Birds"
THOUGHTFUL GUESSES
Even after the truth appeared on ARbird, amusing reactions continued to pour in.
A professor of ornithology said, "This is an interesting bird. The bill is clearly decurved, which rules out several potential species. The facial markings are quite distinct and the size is clearly large. I believe the photos are of a whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)."
The best birdwatcher in Hot Springs Village replied, "Merlin photo ID says whimbrel. Looks right to me. Let me know what the conclusion is."
Mitchell Pruitt, Arkansas' most notable young birder said simply, "Happy April Fool's Day."
Gabe De Jong of the Nature Conservancy said, "You got me! That's a nice wooden bird."
David Arbor, considered the best birder in all of Oklahoma, was not fooled. His response: "Looks like a decoy to me. Not a real bird."
Kate Chapman of Fayetteville said, "My best guess would be long-billed dowitcher. I might have guessed Hudsonian godwit (or bar-tailed godwit) but you said it was not a godwit."
[RELATED: More about Eskimo curlews]
The wisest and most experienced naturalist among us, Bill Shepard, said, "It is an Eskimo curlew, all right, but not a real one. It's carved of wood and painted to resemble the extinct shorebird."
John Crabtree, land manager of Westbrook Farms in Little Rock said, "You might be onto something even bigger than that ivory billed woodpecker."
Kelly Hightower, author of the nature fantasy "Runner," replied, "I think it must be a WOODcock or a woodduck or something or other wood sort of thing."
Someone who goes by the handle Autum13 guessed, "Maybe a dowitcher? But I can't tell a short-billed from a long-billed."
Dan Scheiman, Audubon's chief ornithologist in Arkansas, asked, "Why did someone put a nice wood carving next to a fish pond?"
A client of fly-fishing guide Evan Smedley (a confederate of the prankster's) who spread the misleading photos through his website, claimed the bird was "a Ouachita Snipe, a bird I have seen on many occasions."
A Facebook comment from Iowa said, "Actual documentation of an Eskimo curlew would be more astounding than an IBWO" (birder jargon for ivory-billed woodpecker).
[RELATED: Sculptor donated wooden birds]
Dottie Boyles learned of the prank only after the prankster fessed up. She is editor of Snipe, the newsletter for the Central Arkansas Audubon Society. She observed, "I'm just now seeing this. Very clever to put the 'bird' in the shadows to hide the sculpting marks. Pretty good wood carving and paint job. Makes it look real!"
THE PRANK
The April First trick fooled many, but it could have fooled more. Most of the photographs that were sent out were probably too much in focus. Had the images been taken in shade, the sheen of varnish would not have been so apparent, and the trick would have worked better. It would also have been better had the photographer been farther away from the decoy, so when a viewer zoomed in on the image the absence of feathering details and the presence of painted brush marks would not have been so clearly seen.
All in all though, the prank had the desired result of teaching others about extinction and the remarkable, long migrating Eskimo curlew.
NO JOKE
Extinction is no joking matter. Birdlife International has reported that "182 bird species are believed to have become extinct since 1500. Avian extinctions are continuing, with 19 species lost in the last quarter of the 20th century and four more known or suspected to have gone extinct since 2000. The rate of extinctions on continents appears to be increasing, principally as a result of extensive and expanding habitat destruction."
Ken Kaufman, one of the nation's leading bird experts, concludes, "So, to sum up the answer to the original question: How many bird species have gone extinct? We don't know, and we'll never know. But we do know that the number has been tragically high, and that humans have played a role in almost all of the modern extinctions."
Those who want to see endangered birds survive can take steps. One way to do that is to be satisfied with artistic representations of those birds, like Hurliman's carvings. Another way is to discourage scientists and public institutions from collecting live specimens in the wild for taxidermy specimens to be displayed in dusty glass cases or for skins to be stored in drawers at comparative anatomy laboratories.
The Eskimo curlew carving is no longer at the fish hatchery. It is on full display at the Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave., Hot Springs.
Jerry Butler writes frequently about Arkansas birds and the people who enjoy them. Share your stories with him at
Gallery: An April Fowl's prank
