Birds can detect airplane landing lights and weather radar and avoid the airplane. Airplane colors and jet engine spinner markings help to repel birds. Birds seek to avoid airplanes because of aerodynamic and engine noise. Birds dive to avoid an approaching airplane.

While "bird strikes" do happen frequently—over 15,000 times a year in the U.S. alone—they rarely cause major accidents because of proactive airport management and aircraft engineering. Airports use a variety of "bird abatement" techniques, including pyrotechnics (loud bangs), predatory bird calls played over speakers, laser deterrents, and even trained falcons or dogs to keep flocks away from runways. Furthermore, airports manage the environment by removing standing water and specific types of grass that attract birds. From an engineering standpoint, modern jet engines are designed to "ingest" a single bird up to a certain weight and still function, or at least shut down safely without exploding. Most strikes occur below 3,000 feet during takeoff or landing; once a plane reaches its "cruising altitude" of 30,000+ feet, it is well above the flight paths of almost all avian species. The famous "Miracle on the Hudson" was an extremely rare event because both engines were disabled by a massive flock of heavy Canada geese, a scenario that modern "radar bird tracking" now helps pilots avoid in 2026.