A tourist claims to have snapped a photo showing a UFO flying over World Trade Center (WTC) Ground Zero buildings.

While UFO hunters have described the aerial object as an unusual UFO with rocket-shaped tails, skeptics have dismissed the claim, pointing out that the object looks remarkably like a bird flying over the buildings.

According to the unnamed tourist in a report submitted to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), and filed as Case 77629, the sighting occurred on May 19, 2016.

MUFON is a U.S.-based organization that documents and investigates UFO sightings reports from around the world.

UFO Over New York City World Trade Center By Tourist 2016, Photos, UFO Sighting News. https://t.co/Hn1hWIms6i pic.twitter.com/fZ1eBiIrPU — Scott  (@SCWBooks) July 13, 2016

Stunning 'unidentified aircraft' snapped over #NYC World Trade Center https://t.co/UgIWSttH29 — Steve Warner (@darkcityfm) July 14, 2016

The witness reported that while visiting WTC Ground Zero with his wife, he snapped many photos without focusing on a specific object. He did not notice anything unusual at the time he was snapping the photos. But after he returned home and was viewing the photos with his wife, he noticed a mysterious object flying above the WTC Ground Zero buildings.

“We were visiting WTC Ground Zero with my wife,” he wrote in this report submitted to MUFON.”I was capturing continuously, without focusing on a specific object. I captured many photos. In one minute I captured three photos consecutively.”

“After my holiday, while I and my wife were viewing the photos, we found an unknown object and it was flying above,” he continued. “We didn’t detect it with our naked eyes when we were visiting the World Trade Center.”

“We were visiting the World Trade Center Ground Zero… We snapped a UFO flying above [the buildings].”

NYC ON ALERT: 'Unidentified aircraft' snapped over World Trade Center Ground Zero https://t.co/U8NZF9T9aI — News Chicken (@thenewschicken) July 14, 2016

NYC ALERT: 'Unidentified aircraft' snapped over World Trade Center Ground Zero https://t.co/uAMFoA0rtf — kay gosh (@lovetreeskk) July 13, 2016

The tourist was convinced that the aerial object was not an “ordinary vehicle” because the government does not allow airplanes to fly over the Ground Zero site. He suggested it was a UFO that was not be detected by radar.

“I don’t believe that the US Government lets an ordinary vehicle to fly above there. Maybe this is an undetected vehicle or it was a UFO.”

He also implied that the object may have appeared through an inter-dimensional portal.

“In one photo there are colorful circles. In photo two the circles are replacing and a UFO appears suddenly,” he wrote. “In photo three there is no light and no UFO.”

“I want professionals to analyze the images and I am so curious about the results,” he concluded.

“I was not a believer, but I was ready to believe. Now I want to believe.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=vQxYGLcULMA

UFO blogger Scott C. Waring declared that the object was undoubtedly a UFO with two tails like a rocket.

“This UFO is unusual because it seems to have two tails, and it has a rocket-like shape to it,” he wrote on his UFO Sightings Daily blog.

The alien hunter repeated past comments that aliens take interest in landmarks and sites of historical or cultural interest.

“The fact that this is over the World Trade Center shows me that aliens have a lot of interest not just in the old building, but also in the new buildings that have symbolic meaning to the country,” he commented.

He had commented on a previous alleged UFO sighting over the Empire State Building that aliens take an interest in major architectural landmarks and sites of historical and cultural interest.

“Aliens have a high interest in how we try to preserve our old culture, and this building [Empire State Building] is a prime example of what they would like to see,” he wrote.

Waring’s comments that aliens take an interest in landmarks and sites of historical interest are based on a premise gaining traction in UFO conspiracy theory circles that many UFOs spotted around important historical sites and landmarks could be run by commercial alien tour operators conducting extraterrestrial tourists on Earth “safaris.”

Although photos purportedly showing the “tailed” UFO flying above the WTC Ground Zero buildings have gone viral on social media, skeptics have provided a convincing Earthly explanation of the sighting.

Several viewers pointed out that the object was obviously a bird flying past as the tourist snapped photos.

“I work there. It’s a bird, quite close to the camera, not ‘above the World Trade Center,'” a viewer commented on Express.

“It’s a bl**d* pigeon,” another commented. “The picture is taken right underneath it with the creature’s wings right above its body.”

“[It is] a bird with wings up above body in flight,” a third viewer commented. “An optical illusion… the object was not flying above buildings but between them on a lower level.”

This is not the first time that an aerial object claimed to be a UFO has been identified by skeptics as a bird photographed flying close to the camera lens.

Webcams de México publica fotos de un 'objeto' en el volcán de Colima. https://t.co/QmMC7MTAJy #ELIMPARCIAL pic.twitter.com/pCi8S23WLn — EL IMPARCIAL (@elimparcialcom) June 13, 2016

In June, UFO hunters declared that an object captured by Webcams de Mexico flying over an active volcano was one of the best UFO photos ever. But skeptics dismissed the claim, saying the photo showed a bird in flight.

According to analyst Scott Brando, who runs the website UFOofInterest.org, the alleged “flying saucer” was, in fact, the blurred profile of a bird that flew past the camera lens.

[Photo via Mark Lennihan/AP]