Hovering drone attracts birds

[Tomas H.]

Hi, I had an interesting encounter with the birds: when MM was having poor signal due to the distance and interference, I was lucky enough to click on video recording. Than for some dozen of seconds connection was interrupted, so the drone stopped and hovered... which attracted his flying friends . Just at home on bigger screen I recognized the birds, and that they did about five flybyes. They did not come closer or made any contact, maybe just because I regained connection and drone started to move forward again.

My lessons learned:
1) watch connection signal, any loss of signal is potential threat
2) watch if there are birds around. And if yes,
3) fly higher (yes, in Czechia we are lucky we can go up to 300m legally) or do not stop moving
4) check video recordings, it can provide more info and fun than just watch the distant drone

New video by Tomas Horka

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Pepponeskie]

Looks like a Swallow, they dive there and there and yet usually small.

What I am afraid is with Oystercatchers, they usually attack when something is flying over them. Specially when they get their young with them.

 

[Tetrad]

I’ve had that issue with small birds a few times as well. A couple times I’ve had to bring the mini down just to be careful as the birds were getting too close.

 

[dino9832]

I've see predator birds around my home large enough to cast noticeable shadows on the ground. My biggest fear is my drone losing signal and then being attacked during a return to home! They've been known to carry off small dogs.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Not only dogs

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[shaneb50]

I just recently had a hummingbird flying right beside my drone lol [emoji23]

 

[ludotalk]

Please, do not post such fake videos, unless stating clearly they are a joke.
We already see too many fake news/videos about drones, we should be clean on our side first.

 

[Juggler]

Hi, I had an interesting encounter with the birds: when MM was having poor signal due to the distance and interference, I was lucky enough to click on video recording. Than for some dozen of seconds connection was interrupted, so the drone stopped and hovered... which attracted his flying friends . Just at home on bigger screen I recognized the birds, and that they did about five flybyes. They did not come closer or made any contact, maybe just because I regained connection and drone started to move forward again.

My lessons learned:
1) watch connection signal, any loss of signal is potential threat
2) watch if there are birds around. And if yes,
3) fly higher (yes, in Czechia we are lucky we can go up to 300m legally) or do not stop moving
4) check video recordings, it can provide more info and fun than just watch the distant drone

New video by Tomas Horka

photos.app.goo.gl

Not sure what distances you get in the EU but I thought it would have been more the 500mtr...I would edit the clip and get onto the DJI tech support and shw them.
I think the way the signal goes from almost full strenght to lost you could have a signal board issue same as mine

 

[raymacke]

Looks to me like a type of swallow. They seem to be very curious and often circle around my Mini if hovering or moving slow. They never seem to threaten but rather just buzz around checking it out.

 

[Tomas H.]

Not sure what distances you get in the EU but I thought it would have been more the 500mtr...I would edit the clip and get onto the DJI tech support and shw them.
I think the way the signal goes from almost full strenght to lost you could have a signal board issue same as mine

I live and fly near Prague, with quite lot of houses (and their wifis) in small satelites. There are places where even more than 300m is the issue, but other place a bit further from houses I can go over 1000m and still the signal is good.

I have seen in other threads similar experiance and comments to wifi signalsymbol on RC, which goes from full signal to no signal almost instantly. With recent DJI Fly app version it is slightly better, there are times when symbol changes from full to yellow which means that signal may be lost soon.
One reason for sudden changes in signal strength may be interference to close wifi signals: as drone flies further, this interference changes rapidly.