The names of the 49 victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting were being read at a vigil in the city. One photographer noticed a flock of birds flying by during the event, and snapped a picture.
She was surprised to count 49 birds in the image.
“I then showed everyone around me and had them count,” she said. “We were all stunned.”
The photographer noted that there was a deafening silence in between the pauses of the name reading and the painful sobbing in the crowd.
The candlelight vigil was held on Monday at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center.
A spokesman for the center said the birds were not purposely released and surprised them as well.