Is Big Brother Vladimir Putin watching us from above?

We’ve seen the Russian president shirtless on a horse, calmly stroking a leopard and flooring a Judo black belt. Has Russia’s king of masculine poses found a way to get a swarm of flying birds to soar into a formation of his face? 

Sheryl Gilbert caught the above video of a flock of undulating birds moving across the sky while she was crossing the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn this week. Gregory West, who appears to be Gilbert’s husband, tweeted the video and asked people, “Can you see the face? Who is it?”

While the authenticity of the video hasn’t been confirmed, it caught the eye of some media outlets, who noted its downright creepiness(insert Alfred Hitchcock The Birds joke here), but it was Russian TV station Zvezda that came up with the idea that the birds resembled Putin. 

Do you see President Vladimir Putin’s face in the swarming birds video? (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Reuters)

Once the channel picked it up, people started weighing in. Comments like, “It’s a warning to the U.S. that they shouldn’t start a war with Russia” and “Putin bribed American birds” were posted in response, according to online translations. 

Who do you see?

Putin is well-known for his macho-man photo opportunities. (Alexei Druzhinin/Reuters)