Authors
Shaminder started off his career as a freelance journalist for a consulting and research firm. He has been a Political Strategist and Media Manager. Before joining Newschecker, he worked with various reputed media agencies like Daily Post India, PTC News.
A Facebook user shared a video that shows a flock of birds on a road in Chandigarh. The caption reads, “Chandigarh Kalka Road. Nature is back to its basics. Birds are singing in style.”
A complete lockdown is in place across India to slow the spread of COVID-19. In the backdrop of the lockdown, videos of animals and birds are surfacing on the internet. Among them, a video of a flock of birds is doing rounds on social media, claiming that the video was shot at Chandigarh – Kalka road.
We found that the video is viral on both WhatsApp and Facebook. Notably, Shiromani Akali Dal president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s political secretary Charanjit Singh Brar also shared the viral video on his Facebook Page.
Several readers sent the viral video to Newschecker’s WhatsApp helpline number for verification.
Fact Check
With the help of ‘InVid,’ we got multiple keyframes of the video. By using a reverse-image search on one of the keyframes, we found a video uploaded on the Twitter handle named “Chirag Thumar,” uploaded on February 11, 2020. We analyzed the viral video, and the video uploaded on Twitter from frame to frame and established that it is the same video. The caption given in the video suggests that it is a video of Birds flying at Riverfront. Sabarmati Riverfront is a waterfront being developed along the banks of the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad, India.
With the help of relevant keywords search, we found the viral video uploaded on the official channel of ‘The Times of India, uploaded on February 12, 2020. The description of the video reads,” Residents of Ahmedabad were taken in for a surprise when hundreds of birds flocked together in the sky.”
During our search, we found the same viral video uploaded on a web portal MSN. According to the report published on February 13, 2020, residents of Ahmedabad were taken in for a surprise when hundreds of birds flocked together in the sky. The spectacular scene from Riverfront left viewers spellbound. An undated video of hundreds of birds flocking together is being widely shared on social media. Flocking together is a phenomenon called murmuration wherein birds fly in swooping and having intricately coordinated patterns through the sky.
Conclusion
It is evident from our fact check that a video of a flock of birds being shared on social media claiming that the video has been shot at Chandigarh is false, The video is actually from Ahmedabad and was shot at Riverfront.
Tools Used
- Google Reverse Image Search
- YouTube Search
- Google Search
Result: False
(If you would like us to fact check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill the form)
Authors
Shaminder started off his career as a freelance journalist for a consulting and research firm. He has been a Political Strategist and Media Manager. Before joining Newschecker, he worked with various reputed media agencies like Daily Post India, PTC News.
