Almost struck by a bird

Doing a circular of Bembridge lifeboat station I seemed to annoy a flock of birds one doing an aileron roll as it approached, footage at 55 secs onward, has anyone ever had a drone downed by a bird? I mean do they actually attack? I did close my eyes a few times and hope!

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Nice video but as a coastal flyer I wouldn’t hang around flocks of any species of birds.

I agree with @HantsFlyer best to stay well clear of any birds, especially at this time of the year which is getting close to the breeding season.

I don’t think the bird was attacking, looked like a pigeon to me, it’s typically birds of prey that attack mid flight.

I suspect it lost site of the flock for a second and tried to follow your drone thinking it was a bird. When birds flock together like that they react to the bird closest to them.

Best to stay clear as they could get hurt by the drone and damage your drone too. Same for any flocks of birds gathered on the ground, Canadian geese are a good example. They have likely travelled 1000s of miles and they will be depleted of energy, if spooked they will fly and this uses up energy that they really can’t spare. With birds it’s all about energy resources

I do like your footage though :+1:

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They will wipe out a drone in an instant if you’re unfortunate to have a collision with one. The males can weigh anything up to 5kg! I totally avoid an area near me during a particular time of year as Siberian Geese use it during their migration.

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I did a short video in our city centre. At one place I took off to get a few shots of a building for one of the RTF challenges and was plagued by a flock of pigeons that decided to circle the building and my drone. After a couple of near misses, I called it a day and landed the drone. :rage::rage:

The pigeons are just curious, they don’t attack. They may be curious, come closer to see what’s that if they perceive it as a danger. Seagulls, that’s a different story.

Great video, be careful flying around sea birds seagulls they see drones as a bird of prey and will attack them especially this time of year with their young. Great work! :slight_smile:

We fly all over the Uk
Pigeons are just stupid , then tend to flock but won’t intentionally attack it
Seagulls are a really problem , and will dive bomb
One of our subbies had a nano taken out by a seagull when it dived down , if you see them go straight up , they can’t fly upwards at speed but can dive bomb !

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