Hawk vs. Drone! (Hawk Attacks Quadcopter)

On Oct 8th, I was flying my quadcopter at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, MA when a hawk decided he wasn't too happy with my invasion of his airspace...

As far as I could tell, the juvenile red-tailed hawk came out unscathed, and having defeated his prey, was happy to retreat. (As soon as he flew at me, I throttled down the props to try to minimize any harm to the bird.) The quadcopter came out unscathed as well. Funds generated through YouTube ads will be donated to the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

[startrak]

Drone: Such a lovely day!! :)
Hawk: Fuck out my sky bitch! >:I

[Gunners_Mate_Guns]

That was awesome.
For those who are curious, yes, that was definitely a Red-tailed hawk.
And, no, they don't always have the red tail, as the name suggests.
I've seen hundreds of these wonderful raptors over the years, so it's routine to recognize them.

[mlr]

THANK YOU for your efforts to minimize any damage to this brave juvenile red tail hawk. Hawkoholics of America salute you!

[curtisbryant]

That eagle went "Air Traffic Control" on that drone.

[charityquill]

wow, this is actually really neat. you kinda get a bird's eye view (literally) of what it looks like when a hawk is hunting prey. pretty awesome stuff :D

[MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

hawk space violation detected... plotting intercept course.
Glad to know that both the mighty Hawk Force One and the Noisy Intruder Drone 666 survived the incident without harm nor causing a thermonuclear war.

[tomtalker]

Dedicating my life to the avian field for just about 30yrs now. Having both wild & exotic pet species experience. Along with working and owning a myriad of birds over the years including small to large parrots and Birds of Prey. I can say without hesitation that when a Red-Tailed Hawk is protecting it's territory or "airspace" as I like to call it. It will stop at NOTHING to rid whatever it may be that it deems an immediate threat. Looking at the video feed in slow motion one can clearly see how the Hawk came in super fast with wings bent and legs and talons extended this Hawk meant business folks...!!! I also happen to live in the area so i'm VERY familiar with that particular park when this incident occurred. The drone certainly captured some amazing footage while it could before being attacked...LOL Bottom line, no matter what technology we invent and put into our skies. Only one animal will ALWAYS reign supreme over everything else. Happy birding everyone...:)

[Cinnamon]

The drone didnt have permission to fly over the restricted air space and spy on humans so nature quickly dispatched an F-22 hawk to bring down the potential threat.

[antipodal]

Thank you for sharing this video, and more importantly, thank YOU for thinking of the hawk, by throttling down the props.

[annepro]

Beautiful sight to see. I once saw a hawk swoop up a rat. Just the way they swoop down is awesome.

[OriginalPinkbird]

Ha, the hawk was like, hey you, get off of my cloud.

[PoetMountain]

Go Hawk! Glad to hear the drone owner tried to minimize damage to the hawk when he saw what was coming.

[dsuess]

Bird: Don't mess with my domain! I own these skies, not you!

[DavidJashi]

Is the bird OK? It could have hurt it's paws in quad's fans.

[joshuamdevore]

Good job, hawk. Take back the skies for your feathered brothers and sisters. The revolution begins now!

[mcprimopl]

Don't you have anti-hawk rocket system included?

[thoruszwolf]

Yep. birds remain the number one hazard to aircraft -'J

[kuramakyuubi]

how much was this drone? how far away does the live feed view work? like how far away can you fly and still see, it in first person view?

[KatherineUribe-]

Fantastic. (Obviously, the bird wasn't injured, it kept flying around, doing it's birdy job and patrolling his area.) Great unexpected wildlife photography.

[jellyshield]

That was actually a really good action shot of the hawk right before it strikes