Flock Safety cameras constitute an expanding network of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) devices that upload data to a centralized, cross-jurisdictional database. The system’s extent and searchability expand its use beyond localized safety and security to the scale of a mass surveillance system. By 2022, Flock cameras had been installed in 1,400 cities across the United States, capturing images of over 1 billion vehicles per month. A Denver Police Department (DPD) audit revealed that in 2024 alone, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accessed DPD’s Flock database more than 1,400 times. Additionally, the Loveland Police Department acknowledged sharing its Flock portal with an ICE agent in April 2025. Developments such as these raise significant concerns about how such networks aggregate movement data and consolidate power through large-scale monitoring and data distribution regimes.

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Flock Feeders subverts the camera's design by transforming it into a functional bird feeder. Ornithological research on artificial feeders demonstrates that birds quickly form associations between visual structures and food rewards. Flock Feeders leverages this pattern-recognition behavior by reinforcing the association between the Flock camera and a potential food source. The work parallels surveillance infrastructures with ecological observation practices. Both systems, including Flock cameras and ornithological studies, depend on distributed networks of tracking, data analysis, and governance. This raises a critical question: when environmental research relies on monitoring, tracking, and data collection, where do observation and stewardship end and surveillance and authority begin?