The footage, published by UFOmania, has garnered close to 50,000 views, and sparked an online debate about whether it was an alien craft, a missile, a firework, swamp gas, a weather balloon, or something else.
Amid the hype, NBC affiliate WKYC, whose cameras picked up the footage, reexamined the video for themselves in HD, and contacted a NASA expert, who told them that the streak was just a bird.
Thomas Wertman, a local UFO watcher, similarly downplayed the clip's significance, saying that the 'unidentified flying object' was "most likely a gull," and not really anything out of this world.
"I can actually see the wings going up and down and this is not uncommon. I've had some other videos submitted over the past that have turned out to be insects, when you get a very high quality resolution, you can even see the wings going up and down as it goes across the screen," he said.
But WKYC's viewers weren't so sure. On the channel's Facebook page, users insisted that the footage was real, or offered alternative explanations as to what caused the mysterious streak.
"I don't know what it is but the article says that 'experts' at NASA who examined the video said it was a bird. The experts at NASA who stated this must have a bird brain because of all things it could be it's certainly not a bird," a user named Jim angrily noted.
"Definitely a UFO," a user named Larry added, saying that at the time in question, he had just parked his car at work in the area "when a light shot across the sky behind the clouds…way too fast for a jet."
"Always someone recording it with a camera that looks like it was HD back in the 70s…can you donate some higher quality cameras to WKYC?" user Keith joked.
