Favicon forwards to WordPress logo

There should not be a redirect for a direct request of favicon.ico, assuming the file actually exists. That is, unless there’s a .htaccess rule or similar doing the redirect. Normally, if a file actually exists that matches the request, WP is not involved at all.

In any case, WP doesn’t use favicon.ico files and even if such a file exists some browsers will not use it (as you’ve discovered) because your site has an explicit link tag telling browsers to use a different file (/uploads/2024/01/WhitneyFavicon_512.png). Some browsers use this tag, others will use favicon.ico if it exists regardless of the tag.

I recommend not using any favicon.ico file and letting the image selected in the customizer as site icon to serve as the sole source for the icon image. This approach should work consistently for all browsers.

I still like to place a web optimized favicon.ico file in the root because google and other bots look for it. Else I get a lot of 404 reports in the Google Search Console and easily miss the important file not found errors.