From robins to falcons: Testing AI's ability to render realistic birds in various positions

Birdwatching is a popular hobby for people of all ages and experience levels. Many people love to take photos or recordings of the birds they observe. Some spend money and time trying to capture that perfect photo of their favorite bird.

Recently, AI-powered tools have popped up in a variety of different mediums. AI image generation was the first to surge in popularity (DALL-E), along with AI chatbots like Chat-GPT.

As someone who loves birds and technology, let's see how well, if at all, AI can create realistic images of popular bird species. The images in this article were created using Bing's Image Creator tool (powered by DALL-E). 🤖

We'll start by requesting common birds in perched positions, then a few niche birds, followed finally by some more complex requests of birds in flight.

Let's start with some really common birds in perched positions,

This AI-generated American Robin looks really good. Though, I noticed it has a lot of white on its underside, more than I usually see in real life.

This fictitious Blue Jay looks pretty convincing. It did a nice job on the complex wing and tail patterns. The AI giveaway for me is the tree branch. It looks illustrated.

If someone showed me this photo, I would 100% believe it was real at first glance. I don't see any big indicators of AI generation. It did a great job of adding lichen to the tree branch. Upon close inspection, it appears the AI struggles with rendering bird feet. Similar to how it struggles with human hands. Poor bird.

The Bing AI Image Creator produced a very pretty photo of this hummingbird perched on a twig.

The Bing AI Image Creator produced a very pretty photo of this hummingbird perched on a twig.

This is a pretty image, but the AI struggled a bit. It looks like an illustration and the hooked beak is wrong. These birds catch insects mid-air and don't need a hooked beak. The tail doesn't look quite right, but it did an okay job with the overall color of the bird.

Similar to the above bird, this image looks a bit watercolor-y and the feet aren't quite right. The white eyebrow looks a little too intense. Other than that, it did a nice job of capturing the essence.

Another super impressive rendering that would fool me unless I knew I was looking for fakes.

This is a less common bird, and the AI got a few things wrong. Besides looking like an illustration, the beak is hooked, too thick, and not the correct colors. The head and upper part of the bird should be darker with more contrast from the underside. It also added yellow on its belly which is giving me Western Kingbird vibes. Oh, and the feet look like a garbled mess.

This AI Painted Bunting would fool me. This is a very popular bird to photograph and people LOVE to oversaturate it to boost the colors. This render is evidence of that. It doesn't glow in real life. 🤣

Another tightly-cropped render. It would fool me. I think it's best we can't see its talons.

This is where I made the image prompts a bit more specific. I wanted to see how it would handle images of birds in flight.

A nice image, but the AI butchered this poor bird's tail. It's split in four instead of two and looks completely wrong.

This render looks too much like an illustration to fool anyone, but the feather pattern looks decent. The beak on this bird is also slightly askew.

Why have two wings when you can have THREE? There is some weirdness going on with the spot on this bird's neck and beak. But the feet look nice, and aside from an extra wing, it's a pretty image.

This image has nice composition and detail but there are some abnormalities in the bird's beak that make it look like it has holes at both ends. The plumage patterns look nice and the feet look normal.

This falcon image contains a bunch of feather detail and a nice depth of focus. The coverts on the wings look funny and don't really match up with the primary feathers. The bird's talons also look off and a bit melted.

My favorite AI-generated bird image. The photo has a bit of a painterly look to it, but the overall look of the bird in action is lovely. Like most of these AI images, the talons could be better, but it's likely to improve over time.

While AI-generated bird images can be visually appealing, their accuracy is often lacking. Although some images appear very convincing, closer inspection often reveals errors in the details, such as inaccurate coloring, strange feet or beak shapes, and extra wings or tail feathers. Overall, AI-generated bird images do not yet match the precision of images taken by skilled bird photographers or artists. However, as AI continues to develop, it may eventually become capable of creating more accurate and lifelike bird images.

Until then, bird enthusiasts should continue to appreciate the beauty of real birds in their natural habitats, as well as the work of skilled photographers and artists.