Quite an interesting photo and easy to consider this as a spie bird. It's not every bird with some device strapped to it that is a spy bird from the government. This was posted on 2023 and the allegedly from Israel, caught in Lebanon. It's easy to identify things like this and make a conclusion that somebody is trying to spy on you. I would totally call it that the moment I see anything like it, but not all birds with devices strapped to it I spy birds and I found out about this recently.
After analyzing this using AI tools like Gemini and chatgpt to be precise, and a little bit of and Google search to get people's opinions regarding this issue (just fact checking) it was explained to me that it's just a GPS tracker. I'm still not certain what it is but I can't jump to conclusions that it's meant for spying. Conservation groups do this work regularly. The devices themselves don't have cameras or microphones or anything like that. It's mostly tracking data for research.
I do get why it looks weird at first glance. A large bird with visible tech on its back isn't exactly normal if you're not used to seeing wildlife research in action. And with the tensions in that region, I suppose anything can seem like espionage if you look hard enough.
But it's odd how the same story cycles back every few years. Different photos sometimes but same accusations. The African Eurasian flyway covers a lot of contested ground, so maybe this will just keep happening whenever a tagged bird lands somewhere sensitive.
Still, it's mostly just science trying to keep endangered species alive. But the conspiracies can also be true so don't completely lose your guard.
