What does this purple bird mean?
- Published
Have you spotted a purple bird popping up in your social media timeline?
If not, it will be only a matter of time before this weird little fellow is as familiar on your feed as a thumbs-up.
Trash Dove, a Facebook sticker which has bowled over social media in Asia, is the cartoon baby of American artist Syd Weiler., external
Social media users stick images of the bird in their feeds
The Florida-based illustrator drew the bird in September 2016 and subsequently created a set of Facebook stickers in January 2017.
Trash Dove appeared in various guises that people could use as emojis, the most popular one showing the bird vigorously thrashing its head up and down.
A selection of Facebook stickers
It was all ticking along quietly and then wham - or coo coo - the dove appeared on a popular Thai Facebook page, external in a dance-off with a cartoon cat, external in early February.
Within a week, it had racked up 4 million views, and an army of fans.
Trash Dove gained popularity thanks to a social media dance-off with a cat
After its popularity was picked up by news channels in Thailand, Weiler posted a thank you video, external on her Facebook page:
"Hello Thailand, thank you all so so much for your support. I'm really glad that you like the stickers."
However, not everyone is a fan. There is a petition to ban , externalthe bird from the internet by those fed up with seeing its purple bobbing head.
But what does it actually mean? Well, who knows? Perhaps its ambiguity is one of the reasons it is so popular.
As Syd Weiler wrote on her Facebook page in October 2016 : "In case you didn't know, I made some fantastically dumb iOS stickers, you can spam your friends and family with them!"
It's just another in a long list of internet memes we've seen so far this year like salt bae, external and cash me ousside.', external
And if you haven't spotted Trash Dove yet, fear not. The purple bird is bobbing its way around the world to a Facebook page near you.
Trash Dove is now appearing in its own series of memes
By Rozina Sini, BBC's UGC and Social News Team