Birds Aren’t Real is not merely a wacky conspiracy theory from the internet age or more recently from the social media age. BAR supposedly began in 1976 to bring attention to bird genocide and in 1987 they supposedly ran a television advertisement bringing awareness to the replacement of the dead birds with sophisticated robots that have the ability to spy. But when did the movement actually begin and is that PSA about bird robots old or recently edited? Almost certainly the latter. The modern BAR movement, however, is considered very real by many though others know it is a parody or Parot-y.

But here is the odd thing; satire or not, bird populations have been declining rapidly, at least officially, sine the 1950-1970s. The Audubon Society reported in October 2022 on a study conducted by North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) showing how bird populations have been declining steeply for at least 50 years. With an estimate 50-430 billion birds on the planet, and 3 billion dying a year, it is hard to quantify any of this. Birds are killed by cats, cars, windmills, etc. Birds make up an estimated 50% + of all species on planet earth.

But here is another odd thing: not only have insects been used as models for robotic drones in the form of cicada-bots, dragonfly-bots, or roboflys, but so have birds. There is the RoboSwift, BionicSwift, PigeonBot, and other less realistic designs. Now taxidermies birds are literally been turned into cyborg/cybirds with the addition of mechanics like cameras and microphones. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is behind the CICADA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is behind insect-sized micro drones in general.

Whether real or satire to bring attention to either conspiracy theories online or environmentalism, robotic birds are not needed to spy on you or nature. There are plenty of devices and ways to do that without the need for a taxidermy cy-bird.