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> Are drones any worse than a flock of birds?

Yes. A flock of birds has incentive and the means to get out of the way. Drones don't react to their surroundings.

Drones are also hard and do more damage than a bird strike.

I'm skeptical that birds have a means to dodge something moving at hundreds of miles per hour. If anything, a human controlling a drone from a distance has more perspective / ability to dodge a plane than a bird does.

Now whether we should actually trust said human to do so... that's a different question, as is the potential damage vs birdstrike.

I've nearly hit birds flying (and actually hit one but at night). They're actually not bad at avoiding aircraft going 100+ mph. They'll tuck their wings and dive if they feel they're in danger so typical training is to pull to avoid a strike (and lower the chance it impacts the windscreen). Obviously not all birds are great at this, particularly the larger ones but they do seek to avoid aircraft generally.

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