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Conspiracy file · Since 2017

Birds Aren't Real

A satirical conspiracy movement started by Peter McIndoe in 2017. In character, its followers say the U.S. government killed every bird and replaced it with a surveillance drone. Out of character, McIndoe describes it as a way to laugh at misinformation.

Also known as The Birds Aren't Real movement · Bird truthers · If it flies, it spies

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Birds Aren't Real: Surveillance Pigeon Enamel Pin
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The story

Birds Aren't Real began as a joke. In January 2017, the day after the presidential inauguration, Peter McIndoe was a University of Arkansas student visiting friends in Memphis, Tennessee. He wrote the phrase on a sign, carried it into the Women's March and improvised a conspiracy theory for anyone who asked what it meant. A friend's video of him spread online.

McIndoe left college, moved to Memphis and spent the next four years playing a true believer. With his friend Connor Gaydos he wrote a backstory, faked "leaked" CIA documents and hired an actor to play a whistleblower. Flyers, billboards, rallies and merchandise followed. By 2022, 60 Minutes put the movement's following at more than a million people.

The reveal came gradually. From late 2021 McIndoe began giving interviews as himself, and on May 1, 2022 he explained the project on 60 Minutes: the idea, he said, was to take misinformation and build "a little safe space" where people could laugh at it rather than be scared by it. A TED talk followed in 2023, and in 2024 a book, written in character.

Watch

Birds Aren't Real: The conspiracy theory that satirizes conspiracy theories · 60 MinutesWatch on YouTube

Memorandum for the recordSubject: Birds Aren't Real

On the record

  1. Peter McIndoe first carried a "Birds Aren't Real" sign at the Women's March in Memphis, Tennessee, in January 2017, the day after the presidential inauguration.
  2. In a 2017 Facebook post McIndoe called it "a satirical movement"; later, in character, he said a staffer had written the post (Snopes).
  3. McIndoe studied psychology at the University of Arkansas for two years and left in 2018 to work on the project full time.
  4. A "Birds Aren't Real" billboard went up near the University of Memphis in July 2019, and a touring rally made its first stop in Springfield, Missouri, in June 2021.
  5. On May 1, 2022, McIndoe explained the parody out of character on 60 Minutes, which put the movement's following at more than a million.
  6. McIndoe gave a talk about the project at the TED2023 conference in April 2023.
  7. In June 2024 St. Martin's Press published the 272-page book Birds Aren't Real: The True Story of Mass Avian Murder and the Largest Surveillance Campaign in US History, by McIndoe and Connor Gaydos.

The theory

  • In character, the movement says the CIA killed 12 billion birds between 1959 and 1971, using poison dropped from modified B-52 bombers, and replaced them with look-alike surveillance drones (as reported by Audubon, 2018).
  • The motive, according to the bit: CIA officials were tired of bird droppings on their cars. Co-founder Connor Gaydos told 60 Minutes the backstory and added, "it's a joke."
  • McIndoe, in character at a 2021 rally: birds sit on power lines to recharge, and droppings on cars are a "liquid tracking apparatus".
  • The movement's lore says President Kennedy was assassinated because he refused to replace the birds with drones (Audubon).
  • In character, McIndoe says the movement dates to 1976, when the bird-drone program was supposedly leaked. Its video "confession" of ex-CIA officer Eugene Price is performed by a hired actor (Snopes; 60 Minutes).

Timeline

  1. 2017January: Peter McIndoe carries a "Birds Aren't Real" sign at the Women's March in Memphis; a friend's video spreads online
  2. 2018McIndoe leaves the University of Arkansas to work on the project full time
  3. 2018November: Audubon magazine profiles the movement, by then selling shirts, hats and stickers
  4. 2019July: a "Birds Aren't Real" billboard goes up near the University of Memphis
  5. 2021June: a touring rally makes its first stop in Springfield, Missouri
  6. 2021Supporters demonstrate outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, demanding it drop its bird logo
  7. 2021December: The New York Times profiles the movement
  8. 2022January: Vice interviews McIndoe and Gaydos out of character
  9. 2022April: The Guardian publishes an interview with McIndoe as himself
  10. 2022May 1: 60 Minutes airs its segment on the parody
  11. 2023April: McIndoe speaks at TED2023
  12. 2024June: St. Martin's Press publishes the book by McIndoe and Gaydos

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