page_title: Bird strike
section_title: Wildlife management
hierarchical_section_title: Bird strike / Countermeasures / Wildlife management
caption_attribution_description: B-6543
context_page_description: A bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion, bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard —is a collision between an airborne animal and a manmade vehicle, usually an aircraft. The term is also used for bird deaths resulting from collisions with structures such as power lines, towers and wind turbines.
  Bird strikes are a significant threat to flight safety, and have caused a number of accidents with human casualties. There are over 13,000 bird strikes annually in the US alone. However, the number of major accidents involving civil aircraft is quite low and it has been estimated that there is only about 1 accident resulting in human death in one billion flying hours. The majority of bird strikes cause little damage to the aircraft; however the collision is usually fatal to the bird involved.
  Particularly, the Canada goose has been ranked as the third most hazardous wildlife species to aircraft with approximately 240 goose-aircraft collisions in the United States each year. 80% of all bird strikes go unreported.
  Most accidents occur when a bird collides with the windscreen or is sucked into the engine of jet aircraft.
context_section_description: Though there are many methods available to wildlife managers at airports, no single method will work in all instances and with all species. Wildlife management in the airport environment can be grouped into two broad categories: non-lethal and lethal. Integration of multiple non-lethal methods with lethal methods results in the most effective airfield wildlife management strategy.
caption: An Airbus A330 of China Eastern behind a flock of birds at London Heathrow
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