Mini 4 Pro 🦅 Peregrine Falcon Attack on DJI Mini 4 Pro - Most Intense Bird Encounter Yet!

[trisen1981]

I wanted to share what was by far the most aggressive bird encounter I’ve experienced flying my DJI Mini 4 Pro.

Bird: Canadian Peregrine Falcon ( most likely)

Nothing foreshadowed anything and I filmed sunset hyperlapse when suddenly:

Within the span of just one minute, I was attacked nearly 10 times - including extremely close swoops just above ground level, which you’ll see in the footage. The falcon came at me from multiple angles with high speed and precision, forcing constant evasive maneuvers.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Key observations:

• The drone didn’t respond immediately after stopping hyperlapse mode - almost like a control freeze for a few seconds.
• The falcon was not deterred by altitude - it attacked both high in the sky and just before landing.
• This wasn't a casual fly-by. It was deliberate, persistent, and honestly, a little terrifying.

Lessons learned:

• Keep your drone moving - hovering or descending slowly seems to trigger attacks.
• Always keep enough battery for emergency landings!

Anyone else had similar close calls with falcons or hawks? Would love to hear how you handled it or if you've tried deterrents (visual or audio).


Stay safe out there, pilots - sometimes it’s not just firmware you have to worry about

 

[MS Coast]

The bird shown at about 0:08 is a Peregrine Falcon. They're extremely agile fliers and far and away the fastest animal on Earth. If it had intended to attack your drone, it would have whacked it. They're aerial hunters. It definitely make some deliberate fast and close passes, but made no attack. I'm sure it was nerve wracking and exciting, though.

It's possible the bird was nesting on the roof of that white multi-story building. The prefer high cliffs and ledges, but often nest on high roofs in urban areas.

As for battery capacity, I thought the idea was to keep enough to avoid emergency landings.

Thanks for sharing the video.

 

[trisen1981]

The bird shown at about 0:08 is a Peregrine Falcon. They're extremely agile fliers and far and away the fastest animal on Earth. If it had intended to attack your drone, it would have whacked it. They're aerial hunters. It definitely make some deliberate fast and close passes, but made no attack. I'm sure it was nerve wracking and exciting, though.

It's possible the bird was nesting on the roof of that white multi-story building. The prefer high cliffs and ledges, but often nest on high roofs in urban areas.

As for battery capacity, I thought the idea was to keep enough to avoid emergency landings.

Thanks for sharing the video.

By keeping enough battery for emergency landings, I mean enough battery to perform maneuvers that were not initially planned in the mission.

That video is just a part of when I turned the recording on - and it definitely was intended to attack But not that deep dive with 390 km per h.

And yes, I think it was protecting a nest somewhere close.

 

[hansenn]

I regularly suffer mock attacks from oystercatchers. These tend to be very territorial, especially when they have young. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to gain height as quickly as possible. This is because it takes a bird a lot of energy to attack an object higher than itself. When the coast is clear, you can safely land your drone.

 

[Cafguy]

I always try to go up fast and then get out of the way hopefully the bird will stop after that.

 

[trisen1981]

I always try to go up fast and then get out of the way hopefully the bird will stop after that.

This is what I made first - going straight up like 50 meters - but this Falcon was faster and kept chasing there. So the only way to get down was this chaotic dancing

 

[GFields]

Wow!