Why Don't Birds Cause MORE Crashes?

Way back at the dawn of aviation, during a public flight exhibition of all things, a gull jammed a plane’s controls, crashing the plane and killing the pilot. Today, there are thousands of commercial airliners – and billions of birds – in the sky at any given time, so it seems like they should run into each other all the time. So why don’t birds cause more plane crashes? LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Aviation: The design, manufacture, and operation of aircraft — and, more broadly, the practice of mechanical flight itself, from a single-seat glider to a transcontinental airliner. - Shrapnel: Fragments scattered by the explosion of a shell, bomb, or mine; loosely, any of the broken pieces thrown off by a violent blast. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Our merch: store.dftba.com/me - Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books - Sign up to our newsletter: http://news.minuteearth.com - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Storyboard Artist Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Henry Reich • Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** DeTect, Inc. (n.d.). Aircraft birdstrike avoidance radar. https://detect-inc.com/aircraft-birdstrike-avoidance-radar/ DeVault, T. L., Blackwell, B. F., Seamans, T. W., & Belant, J. L. (2016). Identification of off airport interspecific avian hazards to aircraft. Journal of Wildlife Management, 80(4), 746–752. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2811&context=icwdm_usdanwrc Federal Aviation Administration. (2015, July 20). Bird strike requirements for transport category airplanes. U.S. Department of Transportation. https://www.regulations.gov/document/FAA-2015-2490-0001 Federal Aviation Administration. (2025, July 28). No fowl play: How wildlife strike mitigation helps ensure safe skies. https://www.faa.gov/blog/clearedfortakeoff/no-fowl-play-how-wildlife-strike-mitigation-helps-ensure-safe-skies Federal Aviation Administration. (2026, August). Wildlife strikes to civil aircraft in the United States, 1990–2025 (Serial Report No. 32). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services. https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/wildlife-strike-report-1990-2024 Harris, R. E., & Davis, R. A. (1998). Evaluation of the efficacy of products and techniques for airport bird control. LGL Limited, prepared for Transport Canada, Aerodrome Safety Branch. https://royalcanadianfalconry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Efficanccy-of-products-and-meathods-for-BASH.pdf Johnson, K. (2022, September 27). FAA researching UV LED lights for prevention of increasing bird strikes. FLYING Magazine. Keeping birds out of jet engines: Failure testing and feather studies combine to keep air travelers safe. (n.d.). American Scientist. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/keeping-birds-out-of-jet-engines Liu, J., et al (2017). A novel design for reinforcing the aircraft tail leading edge structure against bird strike. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 105, 89–101. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0734743X16310995 Lunn, R. B., et al (2025). Light tuned to the avian eye elicits early detection and escape from an approaching aircraft. Royal Society Open Science, 12(6), Article 250047. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12133346/ Nilsson, C., et al (2021). Bird strikes at commercial airports explained by citizen science and weather radar data. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58(10), 2029–2039. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13971 Ryan, M. (2025, August 26). FAA data shows wildlife strikes on the rise. AVweb. https://avweb.com/aviation-news/wildlife-strikes-growing-more-common/ Vaishnav, T. (2024, October 31). Collisions between planes and birds follow seasonal patterns and overlap with breeding and migration – new research. The Conversation.