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.
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I quibble with the premise, birds definitely get hit. The real question is, why TF do they choose to fly so close to cars in the first place? A mere couple of feet more altitude and the problem goes away.
they absolutely do get ran over.
my sister even saw a pidgeon get run over by a tram (tho i guess that one was exceptionally stupid)
tho they avoid cars just like they would avoid an animal.
and after decades of cars, they trough natural selection adapted to living with cars. birds that got hit and died didnt reproduce, so the birds that learnt to avoid cars survived.
Iv def hit a few birds living in a wooded rural area. As many have said, probably carried off my other animals for the most part.
Iv def hit a few birds living in a wooded rural area. As many have said, probably carried off my other animals for the most part.
I will always remember riding in my dad’s fire engine red 1988 Dodge Ram down a country road toward my grandmother’s house. This was a narrow track surrounded on both sides by tall, ready-to-harvest corn. All of a sudden, a red streak out of the fields turned into a red explosion complete with a burst of red feathers and dripping red blood on the windshield. Turns out the ram hood ornament had struck a cardinal mid-flight. It was spectacular.
I will always remember riding in my dad’s fire engine red 1988 Dodge Ram down a country road toward my grandmother’s house. This was a narrow track surrounded on both sides by tall, ready-to-harvest corn. All of a sudden, a red streak out of the fields turned into a red explosion complete with a burst of red feathers and dripping red blood on the windshield. Turns out the ram hood ornament had struck a cardinal mid-flight. It was spectacular.
When I was a kid, I was with my dad who was driving a van. We hit the largest raven or something similiar. It surprised us, but my dad especially, because he hadn’t expected it to swoop in front of us. He stopped to pull it out of the grill but it wasn’t there. Wasn’t on the road, on top of the van, or inside the engine compartment either. He had no idea where it went. We definitely hit it, and the only thing we can think of was that it didn’t die, and was still somehow able to fly after falling to the ground. Sturdy birdy.
When I was a kid, I was with my dad who was driving a van. We hit the largest raven or something similiar. It surprised us, but my dad especially, because he hadn’t expected it to swoop in front of us. He stopped to pull it out of the grill but it wasn’t there. Wasn’t on the road, on top of the van, or inside the engine compartment either. He had no idea where it went. We definitely hit it, and the only thing we can think of was that it didn’t die, and was still somehow able to fly after falling to the ground. Sturdy birdy.
They’re not good at avoiding being hit. It’s especially a huge problem for owls. They fly low (looking for mice) over fields that are intersected by roads, especially when they are young and looking for their own territory. The [UK Barn Owl Trust](https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/hazards-solutions/barn-owls-major-roads/) says it is estimated that out of about 12,000 baby barn owls born each year, 3,000-5,000 of them are killed on roads!!!
There are easy ways to reduce the dangers for birds (tallied about in the link above), we just need these things to become standard practice in building roads.
They’re not good at avoiding being hit. It’s especially a huge problem for owls. They fly low (looking for mice) over fields that are intersected by roads, especially when they are young and looking for their own territory. The [UK Barn Owl Trust](https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/hazards-solutions/barn-owls-major-roads/) says it is estimated that out of about 12,000 baby barn owls born each year, 3,000-5,000 of them are killed on roads!!!
There are easy ways to reduce the dangers for birds (tallied about in the link above), we just need these things to become standard practice in building roads.
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