Migratory bird confused for avian spy

A dead bird found in a southeastern Turkey village caused a stir when it was noticed that the bird was wearing a metal ring labeled "Israel" around its leg. Apparently, some were suspicious that the European Bee-eater may have been carrying a spy chip in its beak. From the BBC:

The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Istanbul, says the regional office of the Turkish agriculture ministry examined the colorfully plumed corpse and assured residents of the village, near the city of Gaziantep, that it was common practice to fit a ring to migratory birds in order to track their movements.
An official at the ministry told the BBC that it took some effort to persuade local police that the little bee-eater posed no threat to national security.
At one point a counterterrorism unit became involved in the case.

"Turkey villagers see Israeli spy in migratory bird"

Israeli vulture "accused" of being a spy - Boing Boing

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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The Snowden Principle

simonbarsinister

United States Department of Homeland Security is in talks with Turkish Security regarding collaborations and cross-training in methods.
- Anony Mouse
  
  The US cannot afford to fall behind in counter-avian-espionage. Our place in the world of the 21st century depends on staying ahead of the avian threat.
Mark_Frauenfelder

The chip contained the text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in it.
- Brainspore
  
  Chirp, chip… whatever.
snagglepuss

Wow. Turkish cops sound ALMOST as science-literate as American cops. Or at least TSA Agents.
- thr33phas3
  
  Hey, TSA agents are plenty technology-literate! It lets them easily recognize the latest and greatest gadgets and steal them out of your luggage!
togi

Hurrah for nations!
Brainspore

So it’s not enough for those Zionists to have a Land of Milk and Honey for themselves, now they’re sending out Bee-eaters just to deprive their neighbors of the same foodstuffs?? Next they’ll be sucking all the cows dry!
- Eark_the_Bunny
  
  Oh NO, not milk-sucking vampire bats! This is udderly catastrophic.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    They’re escalating the conflict and bringing in the Lambton Worm.
OldBrownSquirrel

All of this has happened before and will happen again.

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/01/vulture-saudis-nabbed-was-third.html
Pag

If I were a superspy hiding electronics into living birds, I don’t think I’d advertise which country it comes from on a metal ring.
- elix
  
  “Lost: One cyborg spy-bird, very colourful, tagged with an ankle strap, answers to ‘Henry’. Please call Mossad if found. Reward offered.”
- zarray
  
  Wiretapped animals have a weakness to automobiles
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty
elix

I’m reminded of the monkey that ended up in England and was executed on suspicion of being a French spy. This was during the Napoleonic era, and the French were depicted as being unusually short and kind of ugly (Napoleon was of average height, but British political cartoonists and satirists depicted him as short and angry, since France was the enemy at the time), and they knew that the French spoke a different language. They didn’t actually know much about actual French people.
- hassan-i-sabbah
  
  The Hartlepool monkey!