Alleged "spy swan" falls foul of Egyptian police EGYPTIAN authorities have detained a swan after a concerned citizen suspected the bird of spying. Officials say a man brought the bird to a police station in the Qena governorate, 280 miles southeast of Cairo. The man suspected the bird was an undercover agent because it carried an electronic device. Mohammed Kamal, head of security in Qena, said that officials examined the bird and deduced that the device was probably a wildlife tracker, and neither an explosive nor a spying device. The swan is the second bird to have difficulties with the law in 2013, after a security guard filed a police report against a pigeon earlier in the year. The guard said that he believed the bird was carrying a microfilm.