Close call with birds

[mattmjm]

I've noticed that some birds don't exactly appreciate the presence of my Mavic. So far I've had one close call with birds dive bombing the Mavic while in flight. This resulted in me having to act quickly to bring it home and land to avoid them as they were getting too aggressive and there were far too many to avoid. I've begun scouting birds during my pre-flight.

What is your close call with birds story? What do you (or did you) do to avoid them? Any tips or tricks?

 

[infinkc]

Is there a skin/decal color that birds dont get attracted to as much?

 

[jerryflah]

Most incidents involve TERRITORIAL disputes
Birds are very territorial
If you continue to get this behavior and wish to avoid clashes
Which could result in damage to YOUR BIRD
Get out of their territory
Move to another location

Sent from my SM-G930U using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[jerryflah]

Is there a skin/decal color that birds dont get attracted to as much?

No

Sent from my SM-G930U using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[mattmjm]

I've heard rapidly ascending altitude could work to convince the birds to back off. Almost like they're thinking, "How did it do that? I don't want to mess with that thing anymore." Is there any truth to this? Has anyone tried it?

 

[WhoDat]

My close call was about 20minutes of stomach pain, brought in by intense laughter.

Buzzards circling overhead, ominously.
Phantom 3 takes off and heads towards them.
Buzzards raise another 50ft.
Drone sees their raise, and climbs to meet them.

Buzzards then get the "F" out of dodge, as fast as their wings can take them. I never knew those things were fast....

Guess you had to be there. Those things spend a lot of time on my roof, often eating pebbles off my shingles. They usually laugh at me when I try to shoo them away. But now they're gone, never to come back... ha!

 

[Terry Rodell]

Yes, ascending rapidly is the best way to lose them. It's just impossible for them to fly like that.

Sent from my HUAWEI SCL-L01 using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[voxelman]

Some birds like Red Wing Black birds are notoriously territorial. But even smaller birds will mob hawks and crows when they are intent on marauding a nest.

Good to know the technique of vertical motion to warn them away. I wonder if this works against the raptors that are being trained to take down drones in forbidden airspace?

 

[Sky Captain]

I was flying around a local park shortly after I got the Mavic. I had noticed on arrival that the turkey buzzards seemed agitated, they were flying around quickly and randomly. I thought about bird strikes for about a second, so eager was I to fly. After about 3 minutes into a flight at about 120 feet, I noticed a severe wobble in the video on my phone. No sign of any bird and I thought "that was odd" so I kept going. 5 minutes later another wobble as I was returning, thought nothing of it. When I landed , however, I was shocked to see two talon marks across the top front "head" area and a less pronounced mark across the battery. I looked closely and it was clearly marks from a dirty talon. I rubbed them off with a finger and can barely see it now.

 

[stuartjonathangray]

Hi Sky Captain

Birds seen to be a problem is Africa as well.

My Mavice has been attacked by a Kite and Egyptian Geese.

The Mavic is pretty tough. I was assisting with a search operation for perps in the outdoors and two Egyptian Geese attacked the drone. The attack tactic was to fly almost below the drone up to it and peck it or hit it with the birds body. The drone was hovering and panning the first time so it was unexpected. The drone took a dive spun like crazy and recovered. The next two passes I avoided as I was in the clear and not too near trees so when they came in I climbed like crazy and they missed. Then they left and I was continuing and I did not see them come back from the left. Oone hit the drone and I think dislodged a prop and the drone went down pretty hard and hit the ground bending the camera gimbal support a bit (finger straightened and all OK). Lost a prop however and had to walk in using the controller to find the drone. Was pretty concerned as the bush was pretty thick where it went down.


Put a new prop on an all OK except for some scrapes and scratches. I will be flying with gimbal guard in future (just need to drill holes in the back to prevent airflow restriction to the fan, and I am getting some prop guards. I think it would have been OK if the prop did not come off.

With the kite the drone was in auto land mode between trees and the kite attacked and in the avoiding manoeuvre I hit some trees but the Mavic was fine. If I had also gone straight up I think the kite would have missed as well. Birds cannot climb at speed.

Rather Annoying in both instances but nature is nature.

 

[frankiez]

saw this on youtube.

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

 

[adamsweeting]

This is happening to me all the time. Now having to watch out for territorial birds is just another thing to add to the list of checks!

 

[frankiez]

My neighbor had a bunch of turkey vultures sitting in his tree. I kept seeing them and thought to myself I ought to fly the mavic up for a closer look. I kept putting it off and by the time I got around to it, there were only a few of them left. When I flew up to them, I don't know if it was the sound of the rotors or what, but they took off from the tree. They did however keep flying near it kinda as to check it out and see what it was all about. After hearing the stories, maybe I'm glad they didn't want to get too close.

 

[dsd317]

My neighbor had a bunch of turkey vultures sitting in his tree. I kept seeing them and thought to myself I ought to fly the mavic up for a closer look. I kept putting it off and by the time I got around to it, there were only a few of them left. When I flew up to them, I don't know if it was the sound of the rotors or what, but they took off from the tree. They did however keep flying near it kinda as to check it out and see what it was all about. After hearing the stories, maybe I'm glad they didn't want to get too close.

I could be totally wrong on this, but I don't think vultures, in general, attack anything moving. They're "lazy" and prefer to eat things that won't give a fight. Basically things (animals) that are not moving, dying, or just plain dead.

So I wouldn't be too concerned about flying your mavic near turkey vultures as opposed to flying near hawks/eagles or other birds that can be aggressive towards moving things. We have lots of turkey vultures around here and I haven't had any issues with them.....so far! (knock-on-wood)