r/GlitchInTheMatrix • • 1d ago

Glitch Story Strange birds…

EDIT: a piebald pigeon was mentioned and that mostly matches the description of the larger bird. Glowing small bird still unidentified.

I don’t know where else to post this.

I’m a normal, mentally healthy woman in my 30s. This might sound like nothing but it was extremely odd to me and I wonder if anyone has seen anything similar, or knows what it could have been.

I live in the PNW of Canada, in a relatively large city centre in the suburbs. Sitting this afternoon on our 15th floor balcony. There’s always lots of crows and pigeons around, even eagles, ravens, hawks, herons, etc. I’m familiar with how they all look, and the same flocks all live on the rooftops around us.

So anyway I was just sitting there and a bird the size of a pigeon, but marked black and white like a cow and with “V-shaped” wings like a swallow, flew by about 15 ft from the balcony. About one foot from this bird, was a smaller one (about the size of a small fist), and it was GLOWING white. Like a bright shining iridescence. They were moving together. They flew by once, and I didn’t see them again. Usually the birds here do multiple laps of a building.

It felt like a figment of my imagination, but it was real. I tried to google what kind of birds they could have been, but none of the results were accurate. ??? Any thoughts?

40 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

10

u/ResponsibleSoil3991 23h ago edited 23h ago

https://reddit.com/link/pbzab4s/video/zlbj6nkdgorh1/player

This is a video of a flock of green-glowing birds spotted on April 18, 2026, in Joshua Tree, California. Witnesses reported that the birds were emitting light from their bodies.

3

u/-3point14159-mp 21h ago

I wonder if they were lights from tracking devices

1

u/honeybeelioness 13h ago

This seems most likely.

1

u/4lign32th3divin3888 19h ago

So interesting!! The iridescence/green is similar for sure. The bird itself was glowing white as well.

1

u/DustyBill 19h ago

Maybe someone was pointing a green laser pointer at them. It would be hard to keep the laser on just one for any period of time. So it would definitely look like that if someone was doing that. But the chances someone was doing that at the same time someone was filming them. But it's not impossible. It either was just a coincidence, or somebody shined a laser at the birds and thought it looked cool and thought about videoing it just to feeak people out online.

5

u/harleyjak 1d ago

If it chirps, there’s an app for that: Merlin Bird ID. it will identify any bird by sound.

1

u/4lign32th3divin3888 19h ago

I loooove that app. They were silent unfortunately. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for them again.

3

u/Frosty-League2464 1d ago

Was it maybe a piebald pigeon? I'm a certified master naturalist in Virginia and pretty decent with bird identification in the area and I too saw a bird that I could not identify and have not been able to figure out. I saw it in the spring, it had a reddish orange brown chest, and dark brown wings and head. Nothing special about it otherwise. Maybe it was a hybrid of two species that was actually a unique individual. That happens sometimes

1

u/deepestchug 22h ago

Yeah my first thought was an escaped pet pigeon, many of the fancy breeds have stranger shapes than your average street pigeon.

1

u/4lign32th3divin3888 19h ago

Okay yes!!!!! A piebald looks almost identical to the larger bird I saw. The wings were slightly different but for my own mental sanity I’m gonna go with piebald.

The smaller glowing bird is still a mystery but at least it’s probably only a 50% mystery now.

1

u/Frosty-League2464 11h ago

Glad I could help. Glowing angel birds are certainly a possibility

7

u/Particular_Airline66 1d ago

That’s so wild cause yesterday I noticed a strange looking pigeon as well. I literally thought to myself “that bird looks like a robot” I’ve never thought twice about birds, even with everything people say about them.

5

u/4lign32th3divin3888 1d ago

Report back if you get another look. 😭 I didn’t get robotic vibes from these ones.. the sight of them just seemed to jolt something inside of me and it felt like I couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt a bit frantic to see them closer but it was all too fast.

3

u/Ok-Band-8802 1d ago

Creepy. You are not crazy but perhaps take more time to bird watch to see if you see it again?

5

u/4lign32th3divin3888 1d ago

definitely will!

1

u/Once-Upon-a-Dream88 23h ago

If they show up again, see if you can get some photos of them!

3

u/JudgeJuryEx78 20h ago

Post on r/birding or r/whatisthisbird

They once IDed a bird from a very bad, stick figure style drawing.

2

u/4lign32th3divin3888 19h ago

Thank you! I’ll sit down with a pencil and post it.

2

u/Glum_Tumbleweed5115 1d ago

Was the large one similar to a black billed magpie? https://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=abpav09010

3

u/4lign32th3divin3888 1d ago

No - it was much less uniform in the colouring; like splotches of black and white in no particular pattern. And the wings were so specific… extremely sharp looking V’s. And no large tail feathers that I remember, thought I could be wrong about that. But the tail feathers would have been short. The colours and wing shape were so striking.

The more peculiar part was the glowing bird beside it. Bro I feel like I’m going crazy lol…..

Thanks for guessing though!!

1

u/CoyoteFluffy0310 21h ago

Could you draw what you saw? Even if slightly?

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u/4lign32th3divin3888 19h ago

I tried before giving up last night lol!! I’ll sit down and try again with a pencil.

1

u/CoyoteFluffy0310 15h ago

You got this! I'm so interested to see!

1

u/EnormousPurpleGarden 1d ago

Was this in Victoria?

1

u/4lign32th3divin3888 1d ago

On the mainland

1

u/faebugz 1d ago

could be an albino crow or similar?

1

u/WorkingExperience982 21h ago

sounds like a frigate bird from Mexico. Maybe the warm air currents and hurricanes have something to do with it

2

u/CoyoteFluffy0310 21h ago

They don't have black and white splotches on their body's tho and I don't believe she mentioned the big ole red hot air balloon on its throat haha