You forget that paper is from the mid-80s. I don't understand why people think they just stopped replacing birds. The authors of that paper based it all on declassified documents that were almost 30 years old even then! If anything the government just got better at hiding what they were doing, mark my words in another couple decades it'll come out that it's not only the pigeons and starlings that have been replaced but also robins, seagulls, and a variety songbirds!

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago

IIRC the issue with waterfowl conversion was sudden failure of seals, buoyancy and ballast systems.

The seagull program was hit with the extra problems of salt water

Last leak mentioned the advances have made in the house sparrow model, but battery life is still an issue.

Songbirds aren't used due to birdwatchers; as outlined in the paper "Avain surveillance: security, counter surveillance, and camouflage" read the updated 2019 version.