The Federal Aviation Administration maintains a "Wildlife Strike Database," where you can search for all strikes between aircraft and birds (or other animals) that have been reported to the FAA since 1990.
The key word is "reported." Unlike other agencies, the FAA does not mandate reporting to its database. By its own estimates, fewer than forty percent of all bird and wildlife strikes are reported each year.
Even with these limitations, however, the database provides a wealth of information on the numbers and scope of aircraft collisions with wildlife.
You can search for strikes for one particular airport, or look at all reported strikes in a single state. You can also narrow your search to look at a certain time period or a particular type of aircraft, or to look for only those strikes that caused significant damage.
You can even narrow your search to look at just the strikes caused by a certain species of animal - the black-bellied whistling duck, for example, or the Laysan albatross.
Start your search by clicking here and use the drop-down menus to narrow your search. Then press "submit," and the records will appear below.
You can also export your search results to an Excel spreadsheet, which you can then sort and filter.
Investigations
Click here to see an example of all wildlife strikes reported in Illinois from April of 1990 to June of this year.
