It would be difficult, even for a very large bird, to consume an AirTag whole, or even mostly intact. However, depending on where you live, a large animal could have. Regardless, there is little chance that would be the cause either, as the Bluetooth signal transmitted by the tag would not be able to traverse through the animal to your phone.
Let's step back a sec, and go over how an AirTag works. It is reliant on two things: Bluetooth and the Apple Find My Network. The latter consists of literally millions of iPhones. The tag transmits its ID approx. every 3-5 mins. If your iPhone is within Bluetooth range (~30-40') it would "see" this signal ... but that signal does not have any location information. What is happening is that once your iPhone receives it, it will relay that signal's ID and the GPS location of your phone to the Apple servers over an Internet connection. That's where you would see its location in Find My. How accurate would be dependent on how accurate your phone's GPS location is.
So, what happens when your phone is not within the range of a tag:
- If it is your tag, you won't see a location update until another iPhone gets near it to relay that phone's GPS location to the servers. If no other phone ever does, you will eventually see a "Last Known Location" message in Find My.
- Ok, but what if it isn't your tag, but your phone gets within range. That's where you would see the "An AirTag is Near You" message. This is where you potentially can have it make a sound so you can locate it.
The other scenario is when an AirTag is placed on you, or in a personal belonging, or in your car ... and, in essence, it is "traveling" with you. This is when you would see the "AirTag Found Moving With You" alert.
Ref:
