How do you guys deal with birds?

[Jac89]

Maybe the wrong way but we have swallows at our house that keeps chacing me so Sunday I put her in sport mode and retuned the favour. No one got hurt. And what i saw was while hovering they were leaving it alone.
But yeah birds of pray i avoid. Low and fast.

 

[Drakenn]

I had an encounter on my second battery ever with what I believe was a golden eagle or juvenile bald eagle. It was huuuuuge compared to my poor drone. I didn’t see it until it was over the drone, but it thankfully just took a peek and kept going.

 

[fiberdude]

After a downpour yesterday.

 

[MichiganMavic]

After a hawk took down my Q500, I land when I see more than 1 bird. I usually don’t have a problem when I see only one , but the time I had the attack , there were three of them. I think it was a territorial thing? Dunno [emoji849]

 

[Hauptmann]

Raptors regard the Mavic as an intruder into their hunting territory. Engage sport mode, and CLIMB. Mavic can outclimb ANY bird.

Other birds mistake the Mavic for a predator, and will risk death to drive you away from their nests. Just move away from them and they'll give up.

 

[JMF]

That is a good point, but 100m is the highest I can go legally. and at that altitude there are still some birds that circle around.

I'm sure there will be no one spying on you if you have to go higher to prevent bird strikes....

 

[Colberado]

Pigeons will do this a lot too. If it’s not a bird of prey the best thing to do would be gaining altitude. If it’s a bird of prey the best thing to do would be to get in sport mode and fly away.

 

[Staz_00]

Never go down - as already mentioned the birds can swoop downwards but not upwards. For that reason, my first manoeuvre is to kick her into sport mode and go straight up. Due to the increased rpm of the motors you’ll have a higher chance of coming out on top should a bird still manage to go into your path and make contact with the blades.

That is a really good tip. Thanks for that, I will sure try that in my next flight

 

[Staz_00]

I'm sure there will be no one spying on you if you have to go higher to prevent bird strikes....

I've actually limit my mavic to only go up 100m, maybe I should change that to be safe, I don't usually fly higher than 70m anyway unless I have to.

 

[Simmo]

I've actually limit my mavic to only go up 100m, maybe I should change that to be safe, I don't usually fly higher than 70m anyway unless I have to.

I think a few responsible pilots mate have set limits maybe 10-20% higher that 'allowable' simply to accomodate issues such as these???

 

[Ben Sharp]

I'm shooting a show for a national channel and use the Mavic to get shots of local flavour, houses, etc.
Had an encounter with about 50 pigeons that circled and circled the Mavic. Got real close. Post production used the shot where a pigeon just missed getting beheaded! It was an amazing shot, glad I did it. Breathed a big sigh of relief, because of course I don't want to hurt any bird.
Then went to Florida to get close shots of alligators at Myakka Park and there are tonnes of those big black birds around them and lots of cranes. I flew over about 25 gators at about 10'. So many birds! But I held my nerve and got some amazing shots of the reptiles. The birds (think they were some sort of vulture) seemed disinterested but still you never know.
Also, I got that quintessential shot of a heron high up in a lot of trees that flies away beautifully as the Mavic approaches. This "little bird" has breathed new life into me as a shooter and I also have a great new skill and hopefully we win some awards because of it!

 

[stanslaton]

Definitely a problem along any coast as seagulls can be very annoying, however I have found that in most cases where there are multiple birds trying to attack, there is a nest close by. This past summer, up in Northern California, I was at a beach viewing area and literally got 10 feet in the air and was immediately attacked. I landed right away and was told by one of the local surfers there was a large nest very close by. I decided not to take off again at that location.

 

[ronk]

After a hawk took down my Q500, I land when I see more than 1 bird. I usually don’t have a problem when I see only one , but the time I had the attack , there were three of them. [emoji849]

When this happened, did you say " Clever girl! " ?

 

[mavic pilot 3]

I had a hawk try to attack my p3 once. This is a dumb question but how do I insert a picture?

 

[Classic flyer]

Hey guys,

As per title, How do you guys deal with birds? especially the ones that circle around your mavic pro.. I've been to multiple locations where birds (seagulls in particular) are such a pain in the butt. They circle around my mavic pro and sometimes dives towards it.

It is now something that I look out for before I launch but honestly I really miss out on great footage because of them My heart skips a beat whenever a bird dives down towards my mavic looking like they would want to attack. They do turn around but it still quite scary.

I've had a flight where I took off by the shore because the area looked clear then suddenly a flock of birds came out of nowhere (I am talking about around 20 of them) and literally started chasing my mavic. I had to abort, fly lower altitude and immediately turn around to avoid them and I mean like a HOLY CRAP kind of moment.

I was just wondering what you guys do with them, do you just fly normally or do you also watch out for them like me?

I live in rural central fla and I have the same problem with ravens and the occasional hawk

 

[julius13]

Hey guys,

As per title, How do you guys deal with birds? especially the ones that circle around your mavic pro.. I've been to multiple locations where birds (seagulls in particular) are such a pain in the butt. They circle around my mavic pro and sometimes dives towards it.

It is now something that I look out for before I launch but honestly I really miss out on great footage because of them My heart skips a beat whenever a bird dives down towards my mavic looking like they would want to attack. They do turn around but it still quite scary.

I've had a flight where I took off by the shore because the area looked clear then suddenly a flock of birds came out of nowhere (I am talking about around 20 of them) and literally started chasing my mavic. I had to abort, fly lower altitude and immediately turn around to avoid them and I mean like a HOLY CRAP kind of moment.

I was just wondering what you guys do with them, do you just fly normally or do you also watch out for them like me?

I applied some aluminum duct tape on my Mavic so it would be reflective. No animals or birds have reflectivity so my thinking was that birds would not see it as a bird of prey. It seems to work too, birds come investigate but quickly fly off when they get close. I was cautious at first because of fear that aluminum might cause magnetic interference. No problems ever. I’ve been flying it for nearly a year with this tape on it. It looks a little ghetto, but I don’t care. Bonus: a lot easier to see when high and far away. If I lose sight after viewing flight screen I simply rotate and try to get the sun to reflect. Works great.

 

[Classic flyer]

I applied some aluminum duct tape on my Mavic so it would be reflective. No animals or birds have reflectivity so my thinking was that birds would not see it as a bird of prey. It seems to work too, birds come investigate but quickly fly off when they get close. I was cautious at first because of fear that aluminum might cause magnetic interference. No problems ever. I’ve been flying it for nearly a year with this tape on it. It looks a little ghetto, but I don’t care. Bonus: a lot easier to see when high and far away. If I lose sight after viewing flight screen I simply rotate and try to get the sun to reflect. Works great.

Good idea, I'm going to give it a try, thanx

 

[Endeavor]

It's pretty much hit or miss.

 

[KTFARAH]

Hey guys,

As per title, How do you guys deal with birds? especially the ones that circle around your mavic pro.. I've been to multiple locations where birds (seagulls in particular) are such a pain in the butt. They circle around my mavic pro and sometimes dives towards it.

It is now something that I look out for before I launch but honestly I really miss out on great footage because of them My heart skips a beat whenever a bird dives down towards my mavic looking like they would want to attack. They do turn around but it still quite scary.

I've had a flight where I took off by the shore because the area looked clear then suddenly a flock of birds came out of nowhere (I am talking about around 20 of them) and literally started chasing my mavic. I had to abort, fly lower altitude and immediately turn around to avoid them and I mean like a HOLY CRAP kind of moment.

I was just wondering what you guys do with them, do you just fly normally or do you also watch out for them like me?

Hi. I have been flying since December 2016 on the beaches of Lima, Peru. Just got back home last evening from another trip at the same location. During that time of year birds are ALL OVER the beach and IN THE HUNDREDS. Luckily no incident yet. I always fly on normal mode. Never on sport mode as it disengages the obstacle avoidance sensors, I do not flight backwards, and neither sideways. The birds go crazy when the Mavic is up in the air and they fly around it, in front of it and towards it. Thanks to the obstacle avoidance it always stops in mid flight. That has been my experience so far, very lucky I would say and Hope my luck continues. Hope this helps. You can check few clips on YouTube under : KTFARAH1. Or Instagram: Adronewithaneye

 

[Vojtech]

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