The Story Behind That Hilarious #WorstBirdPic Meme
Join the revolution by sharing those blurry, dark, headless bird shots you keep hidden on your hard drive.
Sharing photos on social media is common for bird lovers for pretty much the same reason it's common for everyone else鈥攑eople love showing off.
Sharing one鈥檚 worst bird photo is . . . less common. That is, until the recent success of the meme #WorstBirdPic, a phenomenon the website called 鈥渢he best thing on Twitter so far this year.鈥
Most internet memes seem to emerge out of the ether, but I happen to know how this one started. When I posted a terrible photo of an Eastern Bluebird on Twitter one day (see below), I was just making fun of a photographic failure.
I will win your bad-photo contest. Just put my name on the plaque already.
鈥 The Inept Birder (@TheIneptBirder)
Actually, I鈥檓 the kind of person who sort of tries to make light of most of my failures, particularly on Twitter. Most of the time I鈥檓 just pathetic by myself. But my Twitter pal @AmOrnithologist shortly replied with his own terrible photo:
Can we make this happen? (a magnificent varied thrush)
鈥 Amateurnithologist (@AmOrnithologist)
@AmOrnithologist is Jesse Kovalcik, a therapist in the Bay Area who began birding a few years ago. His blog, amateurnithologist, is a collection of decidedly not-terrible photos along with funny and smart commentary on the birds he sees.
Jesse鈥檚 鈥淐an we make this happen?鈥 was mostly a joke, but he found a willing accomplice in 探花精选 California. Within a couple days, #WorstBirdPic was the 鈥淕angnam Style鈥 of ignominious bird photography. Photo libraries everywhere clearly held a pent-up supply of awful bird pics. The photos piled up on Twitter and made the .
For birders, #WorstBirdPic was like group therapy. Many of us carry cameras on our outings (not to mention smartphones), and it can be hard to resist taking photos of what we see. But bird photography is difficult, and soon we have hard drives brimming with blurry photos. I alone have thousands of terrible photos鈥攊t鈥檚 not hoarding if it鈥檚 digital, right? I might (defensively) call them 鈥渄iagnostic鈥 photos; even a bad pic of a bird鈥檚 distinguishing marks proves that I saw it, even if my camera didn鈥檛.
#WorstBirdPic turned out to be an accidental revolution. People continue to share their photography mishaps on social media, and last month, many participated in the 探花精选's Instagram contest. Here are some of the worst entries: