Bird flight heights and the risk assessment of bird strike in the airfield area of Kunming Changshui International Airport

Bird strike avoidance is a hot issue that urgently need to be solved around the world.To improve the feasibility and efficiency of the bird strike prevention,it is helpful to evaluate the potential bird strike risk in the airport and identify threatening birds for flight safety.At present,Kunming Changshui International Airport has a huge bird strike pressure,and it is essential for avoiding bird strike to carry out the targeted research on the birds threatening assessment.A total of 32 bird species belonging to 9 orders and 19 families were recorded in Kunming Changshui International Airport through a successive investigation from January to June in 2017.And the average flight altitudes of these birds were from 1.08 to 50 m.The results of the bird strike risk analysis showed that the risk function values of the 32 species of birds were between 0.03 and 0.80.Eight threatening bird species were identified with the significant influence on flight safety in these birds,which belonged to waders,diurnal raptors,and those with the foraging behavior of catching flying insects,such as nighthawks,swifts and swallows.Furthermore,the large amount of small songbirds haunting in the airport grassland should also be given attention.It is suggested that more attention should be paid in the elimination of the habitat factors that attract the threatening birds,and especially the environmental improvement in the area around the west runway of the airport.