# Bird swooping

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-swooping/180612>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-swooping/180612 "2003-06-09T07:30:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-swooping/180612/1 "2003-06-09T07:30:41Z")

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Anybody know why birds decide to swoop right in front of your car while you’re driving? My guess is thermals from the asphalt, or perhaps an instinctual evasion technique (lower has to be farther from the attacker). Other than those theories, I’m stumped, and guilt-ridden for the bird that I think was assimilated with my Yokohamas.

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**Author:** ![Tarantula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Tarantula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarantula)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-swooping/180612/2 "2003-06-09T07:41:36Z")

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I always thought that they just swooped where ever they wanted - regardless of any car or other machine approaching. So my answer is - “ignorance”.

I bet I’m way off though…

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-swooping/180612/3 "2003-06-09T07:57:30Z")

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Mostly what **Tarantula** said, I suspect - you’re simply not aware of the birds that swoop _behind_ your car and those that swoop across empty stretches of road when nobody is looking.

However, there is the fact that in order to put on a sudden burst of speed, a bird must either make a great muscular effort or go into a dive. This might work well if the bird is under attack from a predator, but motor vehicles are a relatively new thing, so the instinctive behaviours of birds may not have evolved to cope with properly evading them.