Birds are rude

[RallySoob]

I have flown my Mavic 5 times and 3 of them Ive had birds harass my drone.

Today I had it parked above my head about 100ft after take off while going through some menu options. Meanwhile I could hear a seagull chirping but didnt think anything of it.. until my buddy was like hey uh that bird is attacking your drone dude... i look up to see it trying to nip at it face to face "aahhhh!" Land land.... this bird was on a trek across the sky about a few hundred yds away from us and went well out of its way to come harass my Mav. It wasn't like it was protecting a nest in a near by tree. He was just being a d|ck haha. Rude! I was almost equally as mad I had just filled my SD card up and failed to record such a great bird encounter

Ive heard Watch out for birds but around here that is serious talk. I feel really comfortable with the controls, confident I wont crash it myself but factors like this are the reason they should have an optional attachable 3g cellular/gps/bluetooth tracker from mfgr & every buyer should get some form of insurance for crash protection like the care refresh plan at minimum.

I wonder if there is an invention to deter birds you could attach to a drone?

Note: interestingly law enforcement uses trained falcons and eagles to grab drones out of the sky with its feet. It looks like they train them to grab phantoms by the landing gear to flip it upside down and take off with it. The birds they use are way bigger than the phantom too or even the inspire maybe. But im not sure it could grab a Mavic so easily. You have to approach it from below with precision as we all know so its kind of neat in that sense. It adds to its low profile ness as a drone.

One thing thats way hard for me is to keep visual contact with it. Its small, hard to see at closer ranges than i realized. Thats good & bad

 

[TestPilot]

I have flown my Mavic 5 times and 3 of them Ive had birds harass my drone.

Today I had it parked above my head about 100ft after take off while going through some menu options. Meanwhile I could hear a seagull chirping but didnt think anything of it.. until my buddy was like hey uh that bird is attacking your drone dude... i look up to see it trying to nip at it face to face "aahhhh!" Land land.... this bird was on a trek across the sky about a few hundred yds away from us and went well out of its way to come harass my Mav. It wasn't like it was protecting a nest in a near by tree. He was just being a d|ck haha. Rude! I was almost equally as mad I had just filled my SD card up and failed to record such a great bird encounter

Ive heard Watch out for birds but around here that is serious talk. I feel really comfortable with the controls, confident I wont crash it myself but factors like this are the reason they should have an optional attachable 3g cellular/gps/bluetooth tracker from mfgr & every buyer should get some form of insurance for crash protection like the care refresh plan at minimum.

I wonder if there is an invention to deter birds you could attach to a drone?

Note: interestingly law enforcement uses trained falcons and eagles to grab drones out of the sky with its feet. It looks like they train them to grab phantoms by the landing gear to flip it upside down and take off with it. The birds they use are way bigger than the phantom too or even the inspire maybe. But im not sure it could grab a Mavic so easily. You have to approach it from below with precision as we all know so its kind of neat in that sense. It adds to its low profile ness as a drone.

One thing thats way hard for me is to keep visual contact with it. Its small, hard to see at closer ranges than i realized. Thats good & bad

Open for enterprising Americans....invent a ultrasonic device that can be remote controlled with the Mavic Controller and can be attached to the Mavic.With its own battery slot....etc

Push a button and it emits a high screech that only birds can hear....

 

[dewster]

Small birds are very territorial. I didn't notice until it was almost too late that a small bird was making strafing runs on my craft. I though he was going to kamikaze my drone.


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[TestPilot]

Yeah, birds are a major hazard besides losing signal....I wonder if there is any consensus on what we can do to mitigate the problem right now?

Fly away from them in Sport Mode?

 

[4wd]

They can't go straight up like you can
This won't always be best but gives you a few seconds to think what to do.

 

[RallySoob]

Yeah, birds are a major hazard besides losing signal....I wonder if there is any consensus on what we can do to mitigate the problem right now?

Fly away from them in Sport Mode?

For now thats what i do. These things are so much more fun to fly than a phantom. Sport mode is awesome. I love how it makes banked turns. Im in love sry

 

[LucaB]

Open for enterprising Americans....invent a ultrasonic device that can be remote controlled with the Mavic Controller and can be attached to the Mavic.With its own battery slot....etc

Push a button and it emits a high screech that only birds can hear....

any news about that?

 

[Pablo]

My very first flight was in Arizona. I checked it was all clear before taking off. Got the Mavic up about 50m and all of a sudden a huge eagle appears and swoops straights in the direction of my Mavic! Thankfully it didn't do anything, but it sure was enough to worry me.

 

[halley]

They can't go straight up like you can.

If you have room to do so, zipping up a few dozen meters suddenly is your best evasive maneuver. Birds have fairly slow climb rates, but can dive much faster than a (stable) drone. As they regroup, you can start to move forward and descend a little ways away.

 

[LucaB]

If you have room to do so, zipping up a few dozen meters suddenly is your best evasive maneuver. Birds have fairly slow climb rates, but can dive much faster than a (stable) drone. As they regroup, you can start to move forward and descend a little ways away.

well noted, I used to descend but it seemed not enough to avoid that stupid birds. Unfortunately, as you mention, not always you have room to do it.

I've read in other post that applying an orange film on mavic could help, what you guys think?
Actually if really somebody's gonna develop an acoustic bollard (not sure if i make sense in english) thats would be the best weapon to defend from birds strike.

 

[dewster]

I think birds may be less attracted to bright colors like yellow or orange. Or maybe having eye decals on top of the drone will keep birds at a safe distance. We need something like bird chaff. Lol


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[maikm]

Certain bird species will still fight anything violating their territory, no matther what decoration you put on your drone. And they have every right to do so. We are disturbing nature at that point, not the other way round. Have respect, leave them alone. If you see they feel threatened, back off.

 

[xblackxopsxsecretsx]

Like 3 times now out of about 30 flights swarms of tiny birds would fly towards my mavic then swoop away at the last second almost like they think they are trolling my mavic lol

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[LucaB]

Certain bird species will still fight anything violating their territory, no matther what decoration you put on your drone. And they have every right to do so. We are disturbing nature at that point, not the other way round. Have respect, leave them alone. If you see they feel threatened, back off.

You're totally right. But you must consider that if, without notice, you get attached by some birds, your drone could fall down and hurts humans, so in this case... **** birds.
I definitely don't know how to understand weather or not a place is to be considered as "their territory", so in my opinion somebody should come up with something to discourage birds to attack your drone.

 

[maikm]

You're totally right. But you must consider that if, without notice, you get attached by some birds, your drone could fall down and hurts humans, so in this case... **** birds.
I definitely don't know how to understand weather or not a place is to be considered as "their territory"

Fair point. But then again, we are also expected to not fly over groups of people for a reason.

 

[GreatScott]

I have flown my Mavic 5 times and 3 of them Ive had birds harass my drone.

Today I had it parked above my head about 100ft after take off while going through some menu options. Meanwhile I could hear a seagull chirping but didnt think anything of it.. until my buddy was like hey uh that bird is attacking your drone dude... i look up to see it trying to nip at it face to face "aahhhh!" Land land.... this bird was on a trek across the sky about a few hundred yds away from us and went well out of its way to come harass my Mav. It wasn't like it was protecting a nest in a near by tree. He was just being a d|ck haha. Rude! I was almost equally as mad I had just filled my SD card up and failed to record such a great bird encounter

Ive heard Watch out for birds but around here that is serious talk. I feel really comfortable with the controls, confident I wont crash it myself but factors like this are the reason they should have an optional attachable 3g cellular/gps/bluetooth tracker from mfgr & every buyer should get some form of insurance for crash protection like the care refresh plan at minimum.

I wonder if there is an invention to deter birds you could attach to a drone?

Note: interestingly law enforcement uses trained falcons and eagles to grab drones out of the sky with its feet. It looks like they train them to grab phantoms by the landing gear to flip it upside down and take off with it. The birds they use are way bigger than the phantom too or even the inspire maybe. But im not sure it could grab a Mavic so easily. You have to approach it from below with precision as we all know so its kind of neat in that sense. It adds to its low profile ness as a drone.

One thing thats way hard for me is to keep visual contact with it. Its small, hard to see at closer ranges than i realized. Thats good & bad

Bigger drones?

...sent while not using phone to fly.

 

[LucaB]

Fair point. But then again, we are also expected to not fly over groups of people for a reason.

Right again! But even if you fly in a remote place, could happen that some one is passing by.

 

[HumanShield]

For those of you who have ever had the opportunity to witness a hawk grab a dove out of mid air, you know that a bird of prey definitely has the skills to grab a Mavic.

As others have suggested, climbing straight up is the best defense. Descending could be a very bad idea, as they can follow suit with ease and accuracy.

 

[KiterTodd]

For those of you who have ever had the opportunity to witness a hawk grab a dove out of mid air, you know that a bird of prey definitely has the skills to grab a Mavic.

As others have suggested, climbing straight up is the best defense. Descending could be a very bad idea, as they can follow suit with ease and accuracy.

I'd think the props would do some damage to their legs, but I don't doubt they could grab them.

Good tips on climbing up. I had this happen to me today for the first time. I've had hawks get curious with the mavic before, but this morning a large flock of small birds swarmed the drone as soon as it took off. I was concerned they were going to fly into the props and the drone would be dropping from the sky. Luckily they lost interest after a few passes. I was on my way back because I didn't like the risk.

 

[joet]

Fair point. But then again, we are also expected to not fly over groups of people for a reason.

That's also part of the reason why in the US you must fly within line-of-sight - you have very little situational awareness when you can't see the drone - like that hawk coming up on your 6..