[1] Egyptologist Nabil Swelim instead sees a depiction of a saddle-billed stork and reads Ba (making it a “Soul of Horus”).

The few archaeological evidences point to the existence of one or more ephemeral rulers following Qa'a's death and before Hotepsekhemwy of which Horus-Bird may have been one.

Egyptologists such as Jaroslav Černý and Kaplony think that Horus-Bird could be identical to the likewise sparsely attested King Horus-Ba.

Egyptologists such as Wolfgang Helck and Peter Kaplony believe that Horus Bird and Sneferka fought each other to gain the throne of Egypt.

A piece of evidence supporting this theory is the Horus name of Hotepsekhemwy which means "The two powers are reconciled", and could relate to a re-unification of the Egyptian realm after a period of discord.