Statement on the owl photograph

In the past week a photograph of an owl, described as a wild bird of a kind not recorded in this region for many years, has been shared very widely, and celebrated by many people who have worked hard for the species’ return. Since Thursday, three independent analyses have concluded that the image is synthetic. The wildlife group that first shared it has withdrawn it.

A number of correspondents have asked the Association whether the bird in the photograph is the Rosen Owl. A smaller number have suggested that the Association made the image. We answer both here.

The bird is not ours

The Rosen Owl was in its case in the Salon of the House in Seattle throughout the period in which the photograph is said to have been taken, as its keeping log, the attendance book of the Salon and the account of the attendant who wound it on 10 April all show. The Owl does not go outdoors. It has never sat on a fence post. It would, in any case, have been wearing its plaque.

The Association did not make, commission or circulate the photograph, and has no knowledge of who did. We have no reason to doubt the analyses that found it to be synthetic.

A made thing and a forgery

We would add one observation, because the confusion between the two is the reason we were asked.

The Rosen Owl is an artificial bird, and it is declared as one. It carries a certificate of provenance naming each of the thirty-one people who made it. It is entered on the Turing Registry at our own request, on the condition that it be identified as a replica wherever it is shown. A person may be deceived by it for a moment. Nobody is deceived by it for long, because the house makes sure that they are told.

The photograph is something else. It is an image of a bird that did not exist, presented as the record of one that did. Its maker is unknown, and its history began, so far as anyone can establish, at the moment it was shared. The difference between the Owl and the photograph is not that one is more convincing than the other. It is that one comes with its papers, and the other was made so that nobody would ask for them.

Craft that declares itself is craft. Craft that conceals itself is forgery, however beautiful. The test is not how well a thing is made but whether anyone is told.

What follows

We are sorry for the naturalists and volunteers whose genuine sightings, of this species and others, will now be doubted because of an image they had nothing to do with. That harm will outlast the photograph.

So that nobody need take our word for any of the above, the Association will publish the Owl’s keeping log for the week of 6 to 13 April 2025 with its certificate of provenance, and will make both available to any journalist or researcher who asks. We also support efforts to record the provenance of photographs at the moment they are taken, and will say more about how we think that should be done.

The Rosen Association
Seattle, 14 April 2025

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Notes to editors

1. The Rosen Owl is a mechanical owl made in the Atelier of the Rosen Association in Seattle between 2008 and 2019. It is registered with the Turing Registry as an ornithological replica, filing TR-10215, licensed on 20 June 2024.
2. The Owl is not for sale and is shown in the Salon of the House on Thursday evenings, by appointment.
3. Media enquiries: press@rosenassociation.org.