Bird attacks

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I was flying (Phanton2+v3) yesterday at about 100ft and some birds started swooping and darting around the Phantom. Has anyone experienced this? Is there a genuine risk for birds destroying my drone?
 

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Yes there is a risk. If you are minding your own business it is very minimal but if you are out chasing around flocks of birds you are going to wind up getting what you deserve.
 
Yes, it's not common but some birds may attack if they see you as a threat.
You don't have to chase birds to be attacked by them.
There are some species that defend their nesting territory in their breeding season.
I had a few encounters last year that could have ended up with my bird crashing and made for some nervous flights trying to escape and wishing DJI hadn't crippled the descent speed).
Not possible to take photos while this was happening but here's a screen grab from video.
They got a lot closer than this.
i-Kt7VRWK-L.jpg
 
I had some issues with blackbirds swarming my phantom last summer. They'd pop up out of nowhere almost and just fly around it in circles. I'd usually just bring it back in and fly low, move to another location, or called it a day.
 
This is my biggest fear. Even if we are the best pilots / have our drone autonomously controlled correctly, the one variable that will always be impossible to calculate and avoid is flying creatures, mainly because they will go after the drone.

If a creature does hit the drone, most likely it will damage it, and have it fall from the sky. This is the one thing I keep talking about when I'm flying around my buddies, I tell them this is the one thing I am mostly afraid of, cause really...it's like driving on the roads after thanksgiving, or whatever holiday, and knowing there is a higher chance of being hit by a drunk driver, when it's completely out of your control.
 
Yes it can happen - but it's quite uncommon.
Most birds won't be interested in your Phantom and most flyers will never have a problem with birds at all.
There are plenty of other things to be concerned about before you worry about birds.
 
Where I fly ... ALL THE BLOOMING TIME!!!
I'm starting to get reluctant to go out over the water>
Some you never see, but see the shadow buzzing back and forth over the top of your quad when you look at the shadow of the quad later on. Those ones scare me the most, as you have no idea how close they're coming, and never see them while FPV.

Some still's from just one flight video. Most I caught as they peeled away or dove away. The black raven in the middle bottom I was flying LOS as he flew up straight up to the side of the quad then peeled off to it's left.


And one of the better swoops caught mid camera front on, and all of these were just from last Tuesday or Wednesday.
[vimeo]118579735[/vimeo]
 
kitari said:
I had some issues with blackbirds swarming my phantom last summer. They'd pop up out of nowhere almost and just fly around it in circles. I'd usually just bring it back in and fly low, move to another location, or called it a day.

More than likely those were buzzards circling around your quad waiting for a warm meal. :lol: :lol:
 
jason said:
kitari said:
I had some issues with blackbirds swarming my phantom last summer. They'd pop up out of nowhere almost and just fly around it in circles. I'd usually just bring it back in and fly low, move to another location, or called it a day.

More than likely those were buzzards circling around your quad waiting for a warm meal. :lol: :lol:

Nah, definitely not buzzards. They were just small black birds that seemed to just randomly appear out of nowhere, and before you know it, there'd be around 20-30 of them flying around the phantom. Whatever they are, they don't seem to like quadcopters very much... or maybe they love it and they're just trying to protect it by making a big bird shield! :lol:
 
Birds of prey are my main concern. They're the ones most likely to actually attack. Most other birds seem to swoop it, but are always just scared enough that they pull away. But there are just a few too many videos on YT of birds of prey making full contact with a quad for my liking. Not the least of which, is if it comes in talons first from above, the props are likely to damage the feet and claws of the bird, and that could seriously affect it's chances of surviving with injured feet/legs. I don't want to have my quad come crashing down, but nor do I want a magnificent BoP injured or dying from an injury from my quad either. That's a very definite Lose:Lose situation. There's a beautifuly big 3 peaked hill in the reserve just 200m from my house, that I'd love to fly on, I could just about get there from my house, but I won't fly anywhere near it, as we have the most magnificent Wedge Tailed Eagle living up there, and I'm sure he/she would be more than happy to take on a quad that's half his/her size.
 
My drone was swarmed by a flock of aggressive crows in Burma. I had launched from the side of a temple and was about 100 meters out when they swarmed it. My first thought was the flock was just passing by but they began to circle closer and get more aggressive. When I realized they were clearly after my drone, I brought her back to recover. The crows were on my six the whole way back.

My friends were on the other side of the temple and captured it on video. I synchronized the P2V+ footage with their ground cam footage Picture in Picture.

(Excuse my friend's running commentary. She was getting over a respiratory infection and commenting, laughing and choking at the same time.)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2cEnuAPzHg[/youtube]
 
Clipper707 said:
My drone was swarmed by a flock of aggressive crows in Burma. I had launched from the side of a temple and was about 100 meters out when they swarmed it. My first thought was the flock was just passing by but they began to circle closer and get more aggressive. When I realized they were clearly after my drone, I brought her back to recover. The crows were on my six the whole way back.

My friends were on the other side of the temple and captured it on video. I synchronized the P2V+ footage with their ground cam footage Picture in Picture.

(Excuse my friend's running commentary. She was getting over a respiratory infection and commenting, laughing and choking at the same time.)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2cEnuAPzHg[/youtube]

That's a neat looking temple! I'd love to get a chance to just walk around in an ancient temple or castle some day. One of my life goals actually is to visit Vlad the Impaler's castle. Ok, I'll stop now before I ramble on about ancient artifacts and such. :mrgreen:
 
kitari said:
That's a neat looking temple! I'd love to get a chance to just walk around in an ancient temple or castle some day. One of my life goals actually is to visit Vlad the Impaler's castle. Ok, I'll stop now before I ramble on about ancient artifacts and such. :mrgreen:

Bagan, Myanmar is a drone operator's paradise. There are thousands of ancient temples in an area smaller than San Francisco. I find it more fascinating (and remote) than Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Shameless plug for my Bagan video: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkFtjKf8rOQ[/youtube]
 
I heard this on the radio the other day. It's a piece by Scientific American about flying with birds.

This part was super interesting to me:

After several hundred flights, the researchers found that the birds didn't seem to care about the drones' color, or approach speed. And the equipment could get as close as 13 feet to the birds without disturbing them—as long as they didn't approach from overhead—an angle associated with predators.

They then go on to talk about birds of prey.

The article and sound clip are here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podca ... in-flight/
 
[vimeo]119677076[/vimeo]

Didn't work for me today, I came in low and slow, just coasting along the shoreline of our lake,
and where it's normally a single seagull that will get a bit close to the quad, today it was the blasted Cockatoos in a whole flock.
They really didn't like it, they had several passes at it, and since I was over water, I high tailed it away back to the other side, with the whole flock in hot pursuit when I looked up at it LOS.
Bloody little sods. I'll sometimes risk it with a single bird and stand my ground, and they eventually move on, but not with this many - besides, Cockatoos are some of the stupidest birds around, they often fly right into cars, so I sure don't trust a whole flock near a quad.
 

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