Why are birds so good at avoiding getting hit by cars?

Question

There will be times I’m on normal roads or even driving fast on a highway and have had very close encounters with birds flying aross the front of my car.

I never see dead birds on the road so I just assume they have some kind of special airflow mechanism that allowed them to avoid accidents.

In: 111

Answer 1

It’s likely survivorship bias.

You’re likely only seeing the birds that are healthy and know how to maneuver and have good reaction times and are discounting sick birds or ones that may not have the skills to maneuver well.

It does help that (edit, some) birds are able to fly off the ground so there’s that going for them.