Ornithologist Yossi Leshem saves lives and millions for the Israeli Air Force by tracking bird migration and predicting their flight patterns. From an interview with Leshem in New Scientist:
"Israel has a higher density of fighter aircraft in its airspace than anywhere else in the world. So there is a huge conflict between flying machines and flying birds. Collisions are a big danger, for the birds of course, but also for our aircraft. Many more Israeli aircraft have been downed by birds than by enemy air battles in the last three decades… When a white pelican weighing 10 kilograms hits a plane going at 800 kilometres an hour, at the point of impact there will be a force exerted on the plane equivalent to about 100 tonnes. It's devastating"
