it could easily be a decal. in the pics, the bottom of the hood and the edges right to the top of the hood are the proper color.
if it was painted there should be some over spray, mask line, on the side jamb of the hood.
then again if it were masked at the hood edge peak, you could paint just the top to look like it is, problem is if you do that the paint will easily chip and lightly peal at the mask line on the edge peak even if it was sanded properly..