Every day, passenger aircraft encounter birds, usually while taking off or landing.
What airports have the highest number of bird strikes? 
The FAA keeps track of every single strike report and publishes this data on their site. I took this data and filtered it for the top 20 busiest airports of the US in the year 2024. I then added a visual marker to show the number of annual passengers at each airport, so you could get a sense for which airports have the most liklihood for encountering—or possibly ingesting—birds into the engine on your flight. ​

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My hometown of Denver came in at #1 for most bird strikes. Because the Denver International Airport is located near the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Refuge, nearby birds are a big problem. The airport mitigates the risk by using dogs to harass and retrieve wildlife in the surrounding fields.

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Atlanta International Airport, by contrast, have many fewer strikes per passenger.

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This piece was published on Voronoi on March 5, 2025.

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CHART TYPE: Bar Chart, Lollipop Chart