Not that's an ingenious idea. It wouldn't necessarily need to fly; an operator could catapult it up and let it hook onto a line, and a lead weight in the tail w

Not that's an ingenious idea. It wouldn't necessarily need to fly; an operator could catapult it up and let it hook onto a line, and a lead weight in the tail would orientate it like a real bird. You could either make it disposable (expect it to have a limited lifespan when removed by the authorities), or make it stop transmitting and drop to the ground when it thinks it could be in trouble. Birds tend to be coloured to merge into the undergrowth anyway, and if it drops before it's spotted, it could be very hard to find. An operator would then recover it at a later date.