Video of dead birds frozen on lake falsely linked to record low temperatures in China

A video shared online by a photographer in the US state of South Dakota showing dead birds on a frozen lake has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claim it was taken in China’s Xinjiang province during a record cold snap. Wildlife experts told AFP the birds in the video were not a species found in China, and there were no reports of the cold snap causing mass bird deaths in the province.

"The temperature in some parts of Xinjiang dropped to minus 52 degrees after a sudden drop of 45 degrees, and a large number of water birds died..." read the simplified Chinese caption alongside a video published on social media platform X here on February 19, 2024.

The video -- shared more than 500 times -- appears to show a close-up of a dead bird on an icy lake before the camera zooms out to show hundreds more dead birds clustered together.

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Screenshot of the false post on X, captured on March 12, 2024

The same video was shared alongside a similar false claim elsewhere on X in English and Thai; and on Facebook in Burmese and Hindi. 

It circulated online after Chinese state media Xinhua reported that Xinjiang recorded a record-low temperature of minus 52 degrees (minus 61 degrees Fahrenheit) on February 18, 2024 (archived link).

But the video was originally shared by a user who said it was recorded in the US state of South Dakota, and experts told AFP the birds were not a species found in China.

The claim was also debunked by UK-based fact-checking organisation Full Fact here (archived link).

'Ice in South Dakota'

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip posted on Instagram by a photographer called Sean Weaver here on February 18 (archived link).

The post's caption read in part: "EDIT: these birds are from a die off two months ago. The video was recorded two days ago and was the worst die off I had seen. These being juveniles in the video and being froze (sic) into the ice in South Dakota signifies this is NOT fresh."

Weaver added that the video was sent to him by a friend, and questioned whether the mass die-off was caused by avian influenza, a cold snap or a combination of the two.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the clip posted on Instagram (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the clip posted on Instagram (right)

Weaver told AFP on March 13 that the video was "filmed on February 9th on Goose Lake, just southwest of Watertown, South Dakota."

“These are lesser snow geese, a species native to North America, that do not live in China in any capacity,” he said.

Weaver told the Outdoor Life magazine that the video was sent to him by his friend Nate Phinney, who shot it in Watertown, South Dakota (archived link).

'Not found in China'

Chris Elphick, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, told AFP in an email that the birds in the video mostly look like snow geese, which "don’t match any of the wild geese species found in China" (archived link).

He said the birds' cause of death cannot be confirmed without testing them for disease or an autopsy.

"As the Instagram poster notes, many are juvenile birds, which one would expect to be the most vulnerable individuals in the population," Elphick said.

Ming Ma, vice president of the Chinese Ornithological Society and a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told AFP the claim is "ridiculous" (archived link).

In an email on March 11, he said the low temperatures did not kill a significant number of birds.

Feng Xu, an associate professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told AFP: "This bird is not found in Xinjiang" (archived link).

"As far as I know, there have been no mass bird deaths in Xinjiang this winter due to the sudden drop in temperature or avian influenza," he added.

A keyword search found no official reports of mass bird deaths in Xinjiang this winter.

Xinjiang's official "rumour-refuting platform", hosted by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission in affiliation with Xinhua, has also debunked posts about the cold snap that shared the unrelated video of dead birds (archived links here and here).