Odd question of the day.

jac1957 · Dec 25, 2019

I was wondering if a turkey buzzard would attack a drone in flight. I was flying my mini when a number of vultures moved in to the area. Didn't want to risk it so I landed. I live in Pennsylvania and we have a lot of these critters.

Camino Ken · Dec 25, 2019

I live in a forest, in California, and have similar, if not the same birds. I call them turkey vultures. I have flown my M2P more than 50 times with them hanging around in the air without an incident. I occasionally see them in my video footage after the fact and realize that in some cases they are fairly close. I suspect they are at best curious but more focused on looking for dead animals on the ground. I have heard about more aggressive birds that have attacked drones but have no personal experience. I do get nervous and usually land if I see a hawk or eagle since they are known to attack other birds in flight and I don’t want my drone mistaken for a potential meal.

hiflyer201 · Dec 25, 2019

I'm thinking if you land on a highway ...those buzzards would be on Mini in a heartbeat...fresh road kill..

Cymruflyer · Dec 26, 2019

They go by smell, not visuals, to find dead things. Roads, in summer, give off a lot of thermic activity, so they glide around those thermals and often a dead animal on the road will have that smell wafted up with the thermal, so they can smell where it is too and track it back down. They don't seem to be bothered by things flying with them and I have flown thermals with them dozens of times in my little sit in flying machine, but although Hawks will also let things go, those and Eagles often have a go at a drone, it is also a territorial thing to these hunting birds. Even swallows want to have a go at you, up there with a drone.

I was up thermaling one hot summer day, at about 3,500ft with a bunch of Turkey Vultures, and suddenly smelled dead rotting flesh in the air, and they all broke away from the thermal and went off to search for it.

pmshop · Dec 26, 2019

jac1957 said:
I was wondering if a turkey buzzard would attack a drone in flight. I was flying my mini when a number of vultures moved in to the area. Didn't want to risk it so I landed. I live in Pennsylvania and we have a lot of these critters.

ALL birds will be curious and want to see what is in THEIR airspace

In my 4.75 years of flying, I have never been attacked.
But I do chase them from time to time:
This was with a home made craft.