TIFU by accidentally convincing my coworkers I was a competitive bird watcher

Obligatory "this didn't happen today," but a few weeks ago.

I work remotely and have a habit of joining meetings a few minutes early. One morning I was waiting for a team call to start while looking out my window. There was a huge bird sitting on a power line outside, and without thinking I muttered, "Wow, that's a big one."

Unfortunately, I had already unmuted myself.

A coworker asked, "Big what?"

For reasons I still don't understand, instead of saying "bird," I panicked and said, "Nothing."

Now everyone wanted to know.

After several seconds of awkward silence I blurted out, "I've been tracking him for a while."

Tracking who? The bird, apparently.

What followed was ten straight minutes of me accidentally building an elaborate lie about a local crow I'd supposedly been monitoring. Every question made things worse.

"Does he come by often?"

"Most mornings."

"How do you recognize him?"

"He's... larger than the others."

By this point people were genuinely fascinated. One coworker said she didn't know bird watching could be so competitive. Instead of correcting her, I nodded.

Competitive.

Bird watching.

The meeting eventually started, but the damage was done.

Fast forward two weeks.

My manager sends me a message: "Hey, the team is doing fun facts for the company newsletter. Is it okay if I mention your birding hobby?"

Apparently multiple coworkers had been telling people about my dedication to studying a giant crow.

The newsletter went out.

My fun fact was that I was an "avid bird watcher who tracks local wildlife behavior."

Now people regularly send me bird photos. One coworker bought me a bird guidebook for my birthday.

I have never gone bird watching in my life.

TL;DR: Accidentally commented on a bird during a work call, panicked, invented a fake bird-watching hobby, and now my entire company thinks I'm some kind of crow expert.