Claim: Migratory birds returned to the “highlands of Afghanistan” after the withdrawal of US-led international troops in 2021. A video showing numerous birds near the mountains serves as evidence.
Fact: This claim is misleading. Migratory birds have been returning to Afghanistan long before the 2021 Taliban takeover. Additionally, the video in question is AI-generated.
On 14 December, an X user, whose bio says he is “I.E.A [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] soldier,” wrote (archive) on X: “BREAKING: Many mountain bird species have returned to the highlands of Afghanistan.” The Islamic Emirate Armed Forces is the military of Afghanistan, led by the Taliban government. Alongside the post is a video purportedly showing these birds.
He further wrote about the birds: “Local residents report that these birds originally inhabited the area about 50 years ago but disappeared during the 40-year conflict. They further note that over the past three years, these birds have returned and resumed their normal lives.”
A similar claim appeared here.
The post speculates the return of peace after Taliban took over in 2021 as the reason for the migratory birds returning to Afghanistan.
The post is also referring to the 40-year conflict that began when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s. The conflict and political turmoil spans 40 years of unstable governments and, in 2021, when the US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban came into power.
One user, not satisfied with the claim that the peace had returned to Afghanistan, wrote: “This moronic Talib wants you to believe that this AI generated clip is real and somehow a sign of established peace and normality in the Pashtunwali Emirate.”
However, many users who reposted the video, believing it to be real, with captions saying, “Masha Allah” and “Alhamdulillah.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim that Taliban’s takeover in 2021 caused the return of migratory birds to Afghanistan, to be misleading.
As early as 2013, the BBC reported that thousands of migratory birds would make their way to Afghanistan every year. These include “White-naped Cranes, flamingos, ducks, falcons and sparrows.”
They “migrate from India and Pakistan when summer temperatures begin to rise there” and “they make a stopover here before taking off for Russia,” according to the BBC.
In 2017, the Afghanistan government backed by the United Nations Environment Programme, declared Kol-e-Hashmat Khan, a wetland in Kabul, as the protected area for the migratory birds. This happened way before the Taliban came to power in 2021.
Moreover, some 300 or 400 species of birds would pass through the region, according to reports from 2017 that quoted Andrew Scanlon, who previously worked with UNEP.
The safety of these birds has been endangered by the 40-year-long conflict in Afghanistan combined with growth in urban areas and global warming.
The Taliban government itself has taken measures that would endanger the species of the migratory birds than ensure their survival. That includes deeply entrenched hunting practices.
In 2022, the Taliban regime signed “contracts worth US$42 million which allow Arab tourists to hunt migratory birds in Afghanistan,” according to Zan Times, a women-led Afghan publication.
Tolo News in 2023 reported that an Arab trader would release 300 MacQueen’s bustards, an endangered bird species, into Afghanistan’s Farah province. However, some traders also signed contracts allowing them to breed and hunt the birds. Some residents of the area wanted the hunting to be stopped, according to Tolo News’ report.
Hunting was illegal before the Taliban takeover in 2021. A presidential decree in 2005 banned the hunting of wildlife in Afghanistan.
This is also consistent with an earlier trend of hunting being on the rise, the culprits being both the locals and foreign nationals, despite a ban on the practice, the BBC reported in 2014.
In 2013, a hunter who spoke to BBC said “My elders used to talk about cranes, flamingos, wild ducks and quails. These birds were very common in this part of the country. But now it is no longer so.”
While it may be true migratory birds are returning to Afghanistan, there are no latest independent environmental studies or news reports to verify the increase in the trend after the Taliban takeover. Reports as early as 2013 indicate that the birds have been migrating to Afghanistan despite various environmental and human activities that have endangered them. Soch Fact Check, therefore, rates the claim as misleading.
Video shared alongside the caption
Soch Fact Check analysed the video and found that it is AI-generated.
Birds appear in and out of the video as if through an invisible portal. As highlighted below, some birds are missing wings or the bodies are disfigured. An X user who reposted the video aptly noted, “Clearly at 0:03 you can see one of these ‘mountain birds’ walking straight through another ‘bird’.”
We also noticed a logo in the top-right corner that reads “Luma.” Luma is a San Francisco-based AI startup that launched its “Dream Machine,” an AI model that can transform simple text prompts into high-quality videos, in June 2024.
Soch Fact Check also used this tool to generate a video highlighting how footage from the claim might have been created. We provided a word prompt: “A flock of mountain birds that have returned to the highlands of Afghanistan.” The tool then gave a signal that said it was “Dreaming,” meaning creating the video. Within moments, this AI model created a high-quality video with graphics similar to the one from the claim. Both videos’ time is five seconds, confirming the claim’s footage was made using this AI software.
Moreover, similar to the birds from the video in the claim, the birds from our footage are also disfigured and appear in and out of the video. However, Luma created footage that, in our case, was much more colorful and scenic, compared to the video from the claim, which showcases brown as the color for all birds and makes the surroundings appear duller.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes the video of migratory birds circulating online is AI-generated.
Virality
The X post garnered 44,600 views and was liked 1,300 times. It also appeared on X here and here.
It also appeared on X here, here, here, here, here, here.
On Facebook here.
Conclusion: The Taliban takeover is not the reason for migratory birds returning to Afghanistan. They have been returning to the region before the takeover.
Moreover, the video purportedly showing migratory birds is AI-generated.
Background image in cover photo: Concern USA
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com