Is this a real orange owl — or AI?

In early 2025, pictures purporting to show a bright orange snowy owl delighted and mystified corners of the internet.

Photos of the owl showed up on X, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. One post on Reddit had over 153,000 upvotes as of this writing. 

Some commenters were skeptical of the images' authenticity, questioning whether artificial intelligence software or digital editing tools were involved in making the photos. Other commenters suggested theories for why the owl's feathers were orange, suggesting everything from chemical staining due to deicing fluid used at airports to the animal biologically adapting (screenshot) to a changing environment. 

The photos are real. The owl was spotted in Huron County, Michigan, with an orange-red coloring. Scientists aren't sure why the owl looks that way; their theories range from genetic mutation to the chemical staining idea. John Pepin, a spokesperson for Michigan Department of Natural Resources, confirmed via email that "the snowy owl sighted and photographed in Huron County is indeed real." He did not share any additional information.

Multiple photographers have taken pictures of the bird, including amateur wildlife photographer Julie Maggert, who nicknamed the owl "Creamsicle," and freelancer Bill Diller. The latter appears to be the first photographer to publish photos of the owl in a local newspaper and told the New York Times that locals call the bird "Rusty."

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Julie Maggert Photography (@exposingnaturethroughmylens)

Ornithologist Scott Weidensaul, who cofounded Project SNOWStorm, a research project about snowy owls, also said via email that he does not believe artificial intelligence could have created the widely circulated images of the bird. The feathers in the pictures are consistent with how they really lay and move — "every feather can move independently of each other."

"I'm not an AI expert, but I have yet to see any AI or CGI program that successfully replicates the complexity of a live bird's plumage in a way that an experienced observer wouldn't detect it," he said. 

Weidensaul said he hasn't seen the owl in person himself, but the project started seeing photos of it online in January.

Diller first published a picture of the bird on Facebook in late January. He said via email that locals call the bird "Rusty," and he confirmed he first heard about the bird from his neighbor, as first reported by the New York Times.

"Not sure what's going on with this bird — It's a snowy owl, but I've never seen one with this coloration. Photo taken today, 1/24/25, in Huron County, Michigan," Diller wrote on Facebook. "Note; I did not manipulate this photo in any way, except normal processing. The color has not been enhanced or changed in any way. Very strange coloring." 

On Jan. 28, four days after Diller published the Facebook post, Weidensaul wrote about "Rusty" for Project SNOWStorm, which tracks snowy owls across the East and Midwest. 

Weidensaul assured readers that the project and other legitimate scientists would not dye a bird in this fashion, presumably in response to concerns from the public that scientific research caused the bird's orange markings. He later updated the same post, theorizing that the orange bird may have been accidentally spray-painted with red primer during a construction project. 

As reported by the New York Times, CBC and other news outlets, scientists aren't quite sure what caused the bird's unique coloring. 

Weidensaul believes a dye of some sort colored the bird's feathers. The photos, according to him, possibly show the dye was "applied (by whatever means) when the bird was perched with its wings folded and most of its back and upper wing feathers clamped tight." 

"As the owl moves and has been photographed in various positions, the feathers move and reveal exactly the kind of white 'shadows' on lower feathers that were protected from the color," Weidensaul said. 

An image showing feathers Weidensaul believes were protected from a supposed dye. (Bill Diller)

Kevin McGraw, who heads a biology department at Michigan State University and has researched bird coloring, hypothesized in local newspaper Michigan Live that the coloring may be a genetic mutation. 

However, he said via email that without obtaining a feather from the owl for analysis, "it is difficult to make further assessments." McGraw said he personally hasn't seen the bird in person, writing: 

Rusty coloring in owls can be due to melanin mutation, but there are many other hypotheses (e.g. chemical staining from airplane deicing fluid, from metal primer, or from Phos-Chek wildfire retardant). One other suggestion about the animal having an unusual diet (i.e. high consumption of [orange or red] pigments) is unlikely in this case, given that owls do not deposit carotenoids in feathers and would not be expected to create the distribution of color seen in this bird's feathers.

Maggert, the photographer, also has theories — but she likes "the mystery of it," she said via email. "We may never know!" 

In mid-March, Diller spotted the owl again in Huron County, Michigan, and took more photos. Those images appeared to show the animal losing its orange coloration. However, he noted, it was unclear if "Rusty" was molting (shedding feathers to make way for new growth) or the possible dye was fading.

A mid-March image of "Rusty." (Bill Diller)

Snopes previously debunked images of blue owls, rainbow owls and red owls with blue eyes, as well as a miscaptioned photo of an alleged "bumblebee owl."