Identificaron el bulto por el distintivo.

Identificaron is the preterite form of identificar, in the third-person plural. It means they identified or they recognized.

So the sentence is talking about a completed action in the past.

Spanish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Here, identificaron already tells you the subject is they. Adding ellos is possible, but usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

In some contexts, this third-person plural can also sound like an indefinite they, similar to they in English when the exact people are not important.

Bulto can have several meanings depending on context, such as:

• bundle
• package
• lump
• bulge

In this sentence, it most likely means something like bundle or package, but the exact English word depends on the situation you were given.

Spanish usually uses an article where English might sometimes leave it out.

El bulto means the bundle/package/lump. It suggests that the speaker has a specific one in mind, not just any bundle.

Distintivo means an identifying mark, badge, emblem, insignia, or sometimes a label, depending on context.

In this sentence, it refers to the feature that allowed them to identify the bulto.

Here por means something like by, from, or on the basis of.

So por el distintivo means they identified it by the badge/mark or from the identifying mark.

Para would not fit here, because para usually expresses ideas like:

• for
• in order to
• intended for
• destination

So por is the natural choice for the means, clue, or reason used to identify it.

It can suggest both ideas, and that is normal.

In natural English, this usually comes out as:

• by the badge
• from the badge
• using the identifying mark as the clue

So the idea is that the distintivo was the feature that let them know what the bulto was.

The personal a is mainly used with people and sometimes animals or personified beings.

Since el bulto is a thing, not a person, there is no personal a:

• Identificaron el bulto ✔
• Identificaron a el bulto ✘

Yes, sometimes identificar can be translated as identify or recognize, depending on context.

But there is a slight nuance:

• identificar = to determine or establish what something is
• reconocer = to recognize something already known or previously seen

In this sentence, identificaron suggests they were able to tell which object it was thanks to the distintivo.

No, Spanish word order is fairly flexible.

Identificaron el bulto por el distintivo is a neutral, natural order.

You could also say:

Por el distintivo identificaron el bulto.

That version gives more emphasis to por el distintivo, as if the important point is how they identified it.

Because it follows the normal Spanish stress rules.

Identificaron ends in -n, so the default stress falls on the second-to-last syllable:

i-den-ti-fi-ca-ron

Since that stress pattern is regular, no written accent is needed.