Uploaded November 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Airports, like Birmingham here, are where nature meets high-power technology. Crows (corvus corone) and Buzzards (buteo buteo) are happy to play on the runway, taxi ways and surrounding grass, getting close to the planes but with the intelligence not to get TOO close.
They are quite large birds, so collision with a plane could be very unpleasant for both parties. The fact that they figure in very few bird strikes despite high populations in the area suggests they only happen when Crow or Buzzard makes a rare mistake.
The presence of Buzzards is probably actually beneficial to airport safety as potential prey species such as pigeons will be less likely to frequent the area.
The music is "Rock on Chicago" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Airports, like Birmingham here, are where nature meets high-power technology. Crows (corvus corone) and Buzzards (buteo buteo) are happy to play on the runway, taxi ways and surrounding grass, getting close to the planes but with the intelligence not to get TOO close.
They are quite large birds, so collision with a plane could be very unpleasant for both parties. The fact that they figure in very few bird strikes despite high populations in the area suggests they only happen when Crow or Buzzard makes a rare mistake.
The presence of Buzzards is probably actually beneficial to airport safety as potential prey species such as pigeons will be less likely to frequent the area.
The music is "Rock on Chicago" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
