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Birds Aren't Real - Wake Up, California! (With Bird Watching Guide)

This mysterious notice has been popping up all over our majestic West Coast.

Right!

I've been seeing these for years. Well, sort of.

Science fiction writer Roger Zelazny wrote about robotic birds in his 1980 novel Changeling:

The prototype blue-bellied, gray-backed tracer-bird with the wide-angle eye and the parabola ear followed the dragon-riders north. A series of the larger fliers followed it at well-spaced intervals, to serve as relay points for the spy broadcasts...
(Read more about Zelazny's tracer-bird)

The tracer-bird was used for surveillance.

Be sure to check out the robot bird from Philip E. High's 1968 novel Invader on My Back.

Updated 09-Dec-2023: Here's a robotic bird watching guide for mechanical ornithologists:

- Robotic Bird has USAF Flocking
  - Tiny Spyplanes May Recharge On Power Lines
  - COM-BAT Robotic 'Bat' On Order From UM
  - Robotic Hummingbird Spy
  - Surveillance Drone Bird Crashes
  - Army's New Bird-Like Surveillance UAV
  - Robot Bird Alights On Human Hand
  - SHEPHERD-MIL, A Birdlike Soaring UAV
  - Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
- Bat Bot Robotic Flapping-Wing Drone
- Robotic Crow Design, Like Crows, Is A Bit Creepy
- Festo BionicSwift Bird Robots Described In 1930
- Army's New Bird-Like Surveillance UAV

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/8/2018)

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Related News Stories - (" Surveillance ")

China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.' - Greg Bear, 2007.

FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.' - Pournelle and Niven, 1981.)

Perching Ambush Drones
'On the chest of drawers something was perched.' - Philip K. Dick, 1956.

India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.' - Jack Vance, 1954.

 

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