for the replies.
I guess what I was really wondering is how a large plane (eg, 777), could hope to manoeuvre fast enough to avoid a flock of birds.
Sometimes (heh.. more than often) they can't. Here at SMF we had a MD90 actually have a bird strike on their windshield on their climbout from SMF heading to ATL. They turned around, declared emergency, and made a landing back at SMF. So if a large aircraft can't maneuver around them fast, a heavy will be less inclined to.
Besides.. I wouldn't be worried so much about birds.. Fish on the other hand.. That's a more serious problem. That's how Alaska got their Salmon-Thirty-Salmon nickname (and subsequent livery).
Airways Magazine has the story all about it. Link is
here.
BL.