Bird strikes: common, planned for, and usually uneventful
Birds and airplanes meet more often than you'd think. Here's why engines and airports are built for it.
In this article · 4 sections
How common are they?
Very common, and that's partly why they're so well understood. The FAA counts about 24,500 reported wildlife strikes at 870 US airports in 2025 alone.1 Almost all of them are birds. The most commonly identified species is the mourning dove, a small bird.1
Most strikes happen close to the ground. The FAA says about 70% happen below 500 feet, and about 61% happen while landing (descent, approach and landing roll).1 At cruise altitude, birds are very rare.
Engines are tested against birds
Before a jet engine can be certified in the US, it has to pass bird-ingestion tests.2 The rules require tests that simulate a flock of small and medium birds, and the engine must keep running afterwards on a set schedule of power settings.2 Large-bird tests are also required.2 In other words, engineers deliberately throw birds at running engines so you don't have to worry about it.
What you might notice
Often nothing at all. Sometimes passengers hear a thud. If a strike happens on takeoff, the crew may decide to come back and land so the airplane can be inspected. That's caution, not an emergency in the dramatic sense. Airliners can fly safely on one engine (see our engine failure explainer).
What airports do about it
Airports run wildlife-management programs. The FAA says these include changing the habitat around the airport and methods to scare away or remove birds and other animals that pose a risk.1 Strikes are reported to an FAA database so airports and researchers can see patterns.1
The calm takeaway: bird strikes are frequent and studied, engines are certified with them in mind, and crews train for them. If your flight returns to the gate after one, that's the system working.