Guam International
Signature species Yellow bittern
796.6× national rate
kvlak limn
A Field Guide
National Wildlife Strike Database July 4, 2026
A Field Guide
to Wildlife Strikes
Every collision between a U.S. aircraft and an animal big enough to dent it is, by federal regulation, supposed to end up here. Aves, Chiroptera, the occasional Odocoileus virginianus on the runway. Most of the entries are minor. A few are catastrophic. This is a reading of which animals actually break airplanes, which airports have a signature beast, and the incidents you never heard about.
The Threat Matrix
The Centerpiece · Frequency × Damage × CostA starling and a swan both count as one strike, but only one of them breaks the airplane. Read the whole threat landscape at once: how often a species is struck runs left to right (log scale), how often that strike does damage runs bottom to top, and each bubble's area is the repair bill it has run up. Color is body size. The birds that actually matter climb to the upper right, and one of them is very large.
Body size
- Small
- Medium
- Large
26 species, chosen as the union of the most-struck, the most-damaging, and the most-expensive (minimum 100 strikes for a stable damage rate). Bubble area is reported repair cost only - most strikes carry no dollar figure, so every bubble understates the true bill; species below the size floor share a minimum radius. The dashed line is the database-wide damage rate (7.8%); above it, a species damages aircraft more often than average.
View all 26 species as a table
| Species | Size | Strikes | Damage rate | Reported cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White-tailed deer | Large | 1,072 | 82.7% | $47.6M · 330 rpt |
| Snow goose | Large | 168 | 73.2% | $34.9M · 47 rpt |
| Black vulture | Large | 207 | 62.3% | $6.8M · 46 rpt |
| New World Vultures | Large | 338 | 58.0% | $13.8M · 77 rpt |
| Geese | Large | 400 | 56.0% | $3.3M · 59 rpt |
| Turkey vulture | Large | 803 | 49.8% | $30.2M · 172 rpt |
| Canada goose | Large | 1,760 | 48.7% | $131.0M · 330 rpt |
| Ducks, geese, swans | Large | 142 | 48.6% | $1.4M · 21 rpt |
| Northern pintail | Medium | 183 | 47.0% | $8.8M · 35 rpt |
| Sandhill crane | Large | 153 | 39.9% | $0.4M · 16 rpt |
| Bald eagle | Large | 284 | 37.0% | $26.8M · 59 rpt |
| Ducks | Medium | 879 | 33.6% | $8.8M · 91 rpt |
| Mallard | Medium | 1,050 | 20.4% | $20.5M · 84 rpt |
| Gulls | Medium | 7,035 | 16.3% | $30.4M · 367 rpt |
| Red-tailed hawk | Medium | 2,856 | 13.7% | $33.1M · 142 rpt |
| Rock pigeon | Small | 3,334 | 7.9% | $12.5M · 85 rpt |
| Ring-billed gull | Medium | 1,768 | 7.5% | $4.9M · 51 rpt |
| European starling | Small | 4,775 | 2.9% | $7.3M · 74 rpt |
| Mourning dove | Small | 9,855 | 2.1% | $9.8M · 120 rpt |
| Sparrows | Small | 3,562 | 1.5% | $0.1M · 44 rpt |
| Killdeer | Small | 6,263 | 0.9% | $4.1M · 42 rpt |
| American kestrel | Small | 6,013 | 0.6% | $2.2M · 29 rpt |
| Eastern meadowlark | Small | 2,500 | 0.6% | $0.7M · 19 rpt |
| Barn swallow | Small | 5,946 | 0.4% | $0.1M · 37 rpt |
| Horned lark | Small | 5,064 | 0.4% | $1.0M · 37 rpt |
| Cliff swallow | Small | 1,977 | 0.3% | $0.3M · 13 rpt |
By the Year
Reports Filed, 1990-2018Strike reporting has grown roughly six-fold since 1990 - partly because more birds and aircraft are sharing the same sky, mostly because the FAA spent two decades persuading pilots and ramp crews to fill out the form. The smaller oxblood portion of each bar is reports that resulted in damage, and it has been comparatively flat: the typical strike on file today is more likely a starling against a wingtip than a goose into a fan blade.
* 2018 sits at the 2018-12-30 snapshot date; late-filed reports for it were still arriving, so its bar undercounts the true year. Read it as a floor, not a downturn.
All years, in numbers
| Year | Reports | Damaging |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 1,850 | 372 |
| 1991 | 2,389 | 400 |
| 1992 | 2,567 | 365 |
| 1993 | 2,575 | 399 |
| 1994 | 2,635 | 460 |
| 1995 | 2,769 | 497 |
| 1996 | 2,936 | 502 |
| 1997 | 3,455 | 578 |
| 1998 | 3,800 | 584 |
| 1999 | 5,112 | 703 |
| 2000 | 6,000 | 762 |
| 2001 | 5,820 | 645 |
| 2002 | 6,226 | 672 |
| 2003 | 6,001 | 632 |
| 2004 | 6,561 | 626 |
| 2005 | 7,227 | 605 |
| 2006 | 7,241 | 597 |
| 2007 | 7,745 | 569 |
| 2008 | 7,632 | 525 |
| 2009 | 9,509 | 605 |
| 2010 | 9,906 | 597 |
| 2011 | 10,118 | 542 |
| 2012 | 10,917 | 612 |
| 2013 | 11,417 | 609 |
| 2014 | 13,694 | 584 |
| 2015 | 13,808 | 619 |
| 2016 | 13,428 | 589 |
| 2017 | 14,505 | 638 |
| 2018 * | 11,082 | 428 |
Most Wanted
I. Damage Rate by SpeciesA starling and a swan both count as one strike - but only one of them survives the landing intact. Ranked by the share of strikes that produced damage. Minimum sample of 100 to filter out the rare and the unrepresentative.
- 01
White-tailed deer
82.7%damage rate - 02
Snow goose
73.2%damage rate - 03
Black vulture
62.3%damage rate - 04
New World Vultures
58.0%damage rate - 05
Geese
56.0%damage rate - 06
Turkey vulture
49.8%damage rate - 07
Canada goose
48.7%damage rate - 08
Ducks, geese, swans
48.6%damage rate - 09
Northern pintail
47.0%damage rate - 10
Sandhill crane
39.9%damage rate - 11
Bald eagle
37.0%damage rate - 12
Ducks
33.6%damage rate - 13
Double-crested cormorant
33.1%damage rate - 14
American coot
23.3%damage rate - 15
Osprey
23.1%damage rate
Where They Hit
Aircraft AnatomyWindshields and noses get hit most - pilots see the strike happen - but those impacts rarely cause real damage. Engines and tails are different: hit far less often, broken far more often when they are. Lights are at the top of the damage rate because anything that touches them, breaks them.
struck · damaged · damage rate as the right-hand percentage
Airport Specialties
II. Local FaunaEvery airport has a beast it sees more than the rest of the country does. The ratio compares how often a species appears in that airport's strike record against the national average. Local share ÷ national share.
Albuquerque International Sunport
Signature species Gunnison's prairie dog
426.9× national rate
Mc Allen Miller International
Signature species Common pauraque
414.5× national rate
Orlando Sanford International
Signature species Gopher tortoise
257.5× national rate
Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Signature species Common raven
177.7× national rate
Hilo International
Signature species Common myna
176.9× national rate
Lihue
Signature species Munias
160.2× national rate
Boeing Field/King County International
Signature species Glaucous-winged gull
136.7× national rate
Southwest Florida International
Signature species American alligator
102.9× national rate
Grand Forks International
Signature species Franklin's gull
102.0× national rate
Teterboro Airport
Signature species Painted turtle
100.4× national rate
San Francisco International
Signature species White-tailed kite
89.1× national rate
Kahului
Signature species Eurasian skylark
86.5× national rate
San Diego International
Signature species Western gull
85.3× national rate
Midland International
Signature species Lark bunting
84.1× national rate
Honolulu International
Signature species Eurasian skylark
84.0× national rate
El Paso International
Signature species Black-tailed jackrabbit
81.9× national rate
Harrisburg International
Signature species Bank swallow
79.3× national rate
Portland International (Or)
Signature species Vaux's swift
74.8× national rate
Austin-Bergstrom International
Signature species Crested caracara
65.1× national rate
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International
Signature species Boat-tailed grackle
53.3× national rate
John F Kennedy International
Signature species Diamondback terrapin
53.3× national rate
Salt Lake City International
Signature species White-faced ibis
52.2× national rate
Long Island Mac Arthur
Signature species Crows
50.9× national rate
When They Hit
Hour × Month, all yearsTwin pulses an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset, sharply concentrated in the migration shoulders of spring and fall. The summer-afternoon plateau is mostly resident species - gulls, hawks, and the occasional deer - going about their business while the ramp gets busy. Each cell is one hour-of-day in one calendar month, scaled against the busiest cell on record.
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
By the numbers - monthly totals & peak hour
| Month | Total strikes | Busiest hour | Strikes then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3,132 | 17:00 | 285 |
| Feb | 2,888 | 18:00 | 212 |
| Mar | 4,578 | 21:00 | 298 |
| Apr | 7,142 | 21:00 | 591 |
| May | 9,618 | 23:00 | 808 |
| Jun | 7,637 | 07:00 | 642 |
| Jul | 11,908 | 08:00 | 1,133 |
| Aug | 13,545 | 10:00 | 1,086 |
| Sep | 13,321 | 21:00 | 1,064 |
| Oct | 11,713 | 21:00 | 996 |
| Nov | 6,456 | 18:00 | 433 |
| Dec | 3,728 | 17:00 | 343 |
Single busiest cell overall: Jul at 08:00, 1,133 strikes.
On the Rise
III. Recent MoversSpecies whose annual strike count over the most recent three years far exceeds their five-year baseline. Reporting bias plays a role - the FAA encourages voluntary reporting, and reporting itself has grown - but persistent breakouts at this scale tell a real story about wildlife population shifts and where they overlap with airfields.
5-year baseline (annual avg) · recent 3 years (annual avg)
The recent window ends in 2018, whose late-filed reports still lag the 2018-12-30 snapshot - so if anything these growth figures are understated.
How High
Altitude ProfileRead it like a cross-section: the runway is at the bottom, cruise altitude is at the top, and the bars extend right by how many strikes happen there. Most of the violence is at zero feet - geese and deer on the runway, gulls on the apron - but the tail of the distribution reaches into the cruise. The handful above 10,000 feet are mostly migrating waterfowl crossing the Mississippi flyway.
Above 10,000 ft
667 0.6%
3,001 - 10,000 ft
8,862 7.6%
1,001 - 3,000 ft
14,688 12.7%
501 - 1,000 ft
8,312 7.2%
101 - 500 ft
14,935 12.9%
1 - 100 ft
20,232 17.4%
On the ground
48,324 41.7%
116,020 strikes with altitude reported
Hall of Fame
IV. Notable IncidentsEvery fatality on file, plus the most expensive non-fatal strikes. Costs are inflation-adjusted to the year of the most recent bulk export. Many of these never made the local paper. A few - Sully, the Concorde - already have their own books.
SIKORSKY S-76 vs. Red-tailed hawk
Operator: PHI INC
ID BY SMITHSONIAN, FAA 3015. DNA MATCH. A/C CRASHED IN A MARSH NEAR MORGAN CITY, LA. NTSB INVESTIGATED. BOTH PILOTS AND SIX OF SEVEN PASSENGERS ON BOARD WERE KILLED. ONE PERSON WAS CRITICALY INJURED…
CITATION vs. American white pelican
Operator: BUSINESS
ID BY SMITHSONIAN, FAA 2359. 100% DNA MATCH SAMPLE D, 99.63% DNA MATCH SAMPLE C AND NO DNA IN SAMPLES A & B. RESIDUE FROM THE RT HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL STABILIZER WAS COLLECTED AND SENT TO THE SMITHS…
Effect - Other
C-172 vs. Bald eagle
Operator: PRIVATELY OWNED
Possible bird snarge recovered from tail structure following the accident. The included feather was located in a small sampling near the initial impact point through the trees and first pieces of debr…
Effect - Other
BELL-407 vs. Snow goose
Operator: BUSINESS
two or more bird impacts to helicopter. 3 fatal accident. Snow Goose - 11 bags of remains received from FAA. All equal Snow Goose NOTE: FAA/NTSB INVESTIGATION PENDING as of time of this report. N…
PA-23 APACHE vs. Unknown bird - medium
Operator: PRIVATELY OWNED
NTSB REVISED REPORT IN 2006. CAN'T CONFIRM BIRDSTRIKE. WITNESS SAW VERTICAL STABILIZER BEGIN TO OSCILLATE & SEPARATE FROM A/C. PLANE DESCENDED & HIT A MULT FAMILY DWELLING. EXAM OF WRECKAGE REVEALED…
Effect - Other
C-172 vs. Unknown bird - large
Operator: BUSINESS
POSSIBLY BUZZARD. FLT INSTRUCTOR & STUDENT KILLED IN CRASH. HIT BIRD SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE FROM ADDISON ARPT. DAMAGED LE OF L WING. EXTENT OF DAMAGE FROM BIRD NOT KNOWN DUE TO SUBSEQUENT DMG THAT OC…
Effect - Other
PA-44 SEMINOLE vs. Canada goose
Operator: BUSINESS
ID BY SMITHSONIAN, FAA 2319. A/C DISAPPEARED ENROUTE FROM STP TO GFK DURING NIGHT TRAINING FLT. WRECKAGE FOUND BY CIVIL AIR PATROL UPSIDE DOWN IN A BOG (15-20 FT DEEP) NEAR BROWERVILLE, MN. DAMAGE THA…
Effect - Other
EMB-120 vs. White-tailed deer
Operator: ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST
FLT 2 DEER. 1 PAX HAD SERIOUS INJURIES AND LATER DIED FROM INFECTION. TIP OF PROP HAD SEPARATED AND PUNCTURED THE PLANE'S FUSELAGE JUST AFT OF FRAME 21 BETWEEN STRINGERS 14R AND 15R. THE PASSENGER W…
HOMEBUILT vs. Unknown bird - large
Operator: PRIVATELY OWNED
AEROBATIC A/C WAS MANEUVERING AT A LOW ALT. OVER OPEN PASTURE LAND WHEN IT STRUCK A LRG, BLK BIRD, LOSING DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. A/C CRASHED & BURNED. ONE FATALITY. A/C WAS DEMOLISHED. BIRD'S CARCASS…
Effect - Other
BELL 47 vs. Unknown bird - large
Operator: BUSINESS
HELICOPTER WAS ON FISH SPOTTING MISSION IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN WITH SHIP'S MASTER (MV OCEAN KIM). PILOT HEARD LOUD BANG & FELT A VIBRATION IN RUDDER PEDALS THEN ALL YAW CONTROL WAS LOST. PILOT THOUGHT…
Effect - Other
C-172 vs. Brown pelican
Operator: PRIVATELY OWNED
1 FATALITY. A/C WAS SEEN FLYING ABOVE THE WATER ALONG THE BEACH. A BYSTANDER VIDEO TAPED THE A/C AS WHAT APPEARED TO BE A LRG BIRD COLLIDED WITH THE A/C IN THE WINDSHLD AREA. THE A/C ROLLED INVTRTE…
Effect - Other
BELL 47 vs. Unknown bird - medium
Operator: BUSINESS
1 FATALITY. WITNESSES HEAR A LOUD NOISE & SAW AN OBJECT SEPARATE FROM THE 2ND OF 2 HELICOPTERS. THIS A/C THEN IMPACTED INVERTED IN THE BACK YARD OF A RESIDENCE. THE LEFT SYNCHRONIZED ELEVATOR & END…
Effect - Other
Methodology
V. Notes on the DataAll counts and ratios on this page derive from the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database, a voluntary reporting system maintained for over thirty years. The federal regulation that obligates pilots to file Form 5200-7 after a strike is gentle in spirit and weakly enforced - meaning the database is a substantial undercount of what actually hits airplanes, especially small birds at small airports.
Source
The FAA used to publish a complete bulk export - a Microsoft Access database refreshed periodically and downloadable as a single zip file. They retired that in 2019 in favor of a JavaScript search portal that does not expose a programmatic feed. The data here was pulled from the last public bulk snapshot, dated 2018-12-30, recovered from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Coverage runs from 1990 through 2018: 208,925 reports across 2,346 airports and 764 identified taxa.
What "damage" means
The FAA classifies damage from N (none) through M (minor), M? (uncertain minor), S (substantial), to D (destroyed - the airframe is a write-off). On this page, "damaged" includes everything except N; "hull-loss" is the D bucket.
Most Wanted
Species are ranked by their share of damaging strikes. Generic catch-all categories ("Unknown bird - small," etc.) are excluded; a minimum of 100 reported strikes is required to keep the rare-and-spectacular cases out of the leaderboard. A snow goose at 73% damage rate is real. A "small unknown bird" at 18% is averaging across decades of carcasses no one identified.
Airport Specialties
For each airport with at least 250 reported strikes, the species with the highest local-share-to-national-share ratio is shown. So Guam International's Yellow bittern isn't unusual because lots of bitterns get hit nationally - they barely do - but because at Guam, they make up an outsized fraction of incidents. Airports inherit their wildlife from their geography.
On the Rise
Compares the average annual strike count for each species over the most recent three years against the five-year baseline that preceded them. A species qualifies if its recent average is at least 8/yr, its baseline is at least 2/yr, and its growth exceeds 50%. Reporting volume itself has grown over time, so part of every "increase" is a more diligent paperwork - but step-changes well beyond that ambient drift indicate genuine wildlife shifts.
Hall of Fame
Every report with at least one fatality, plus the fourteen most expensive non-fatal incidents (inflation-adjusted to the year of the most recent bulk export). Many entries are missing reported costs, so this is "the priciest the database knows about," not a comprehensive financial ranking.
What you're not seeing
Bird strikes that didn't get reported. Damage assessed at the maintenance hangar weeks later and never linked back. Strikes by general aviation in places that don't keep a wildlife biologist on staff. Animals smaller than the human eye expects to notice. The database reflects what made it onto a form, not what actually crossed a runway.
Generated 2026-07-04 18:19 UTC. Source attribution: U.S. Department of Transportation · Federal Aviation Administration · Office of Airport Safety and Standards.