It should have been just a routine Israeli air force flight; visibility was clear, there were no obstacles on the radar screen, and the plane was flying along smoothly at more than 435 miles per hour. And then, suddenly, the enemy appeared out of nowhere. Something hit the Israeli Skyhawk combat aircraft like an iron fist. The windshield shattered and smashed into the cockpit.

The incident, however, was not an indication that Israel was under attack. The jet had collided with a honey buzzard. By chance, the duck-sized corpse of the bird hit the pilot's helmet first, then the button that triggers the ejection seat. In other words, the bird was responsible for both crashing the plane and saving the pilot's life.

Incidents like this represent what is a constant hazard in the air. Particularly for Israel. In the last three decades, no other opponent has caused the Israeli air force to lose as many aircraft as birds. The sky over Israel is a sort of hub for migratory birds. Each spring and fall, about half a billion white storks, cranes, pink pelicans, honey buzzards and 500 other species come together within a relatively small space. The reason is simple: Many large birds avoid areas of open water, such as the Mediterranean Sea, preferring to conserve their strength by sailing over the corridor separating Europe, Asia and Africa, coasting on warm air currents that rise from the land during the day. In northern Israel's Hula Valley, the sky is sometimes black with flocks of birds.

The flocks, though, not only represent a danger for aircraft, but also jobs for scientists. As Jossi Leshem, 57, jokingly says, "I owe my job to the buzzard accident." Leshem, an energetic fast talker, teaches zoology at Tel Aviv University. When he heard about the collision, he was looking for a topic for his doctoral thesis. And the topic he found has ended up representing his life's work. Today he is considered an authority in the field of bird migration forecasting.

Using radar to track birds

His most important idea was to have a Russian engineer make some adjustments to an old, Soviet-built radar system near Jerusalem, so that its beam would not only register rigid metal objects, but also the soft bodies of birds. Soon afterwards, he made his data available to the Israeli aviation safety authorities.

A second radar station was recently placed into service in the Negev Desert, and a third will be added near the northern Israeli town of Afula in a few months. The frequency of collisions has already declined. Jordanian and Turkish aviation authorities will soon be tapping into Israel's bird monitoring network, and a joint venture with Ethiopia is also in the works.

Israel isn't the only country where birds and aircraft collide. There are about 1,500 incidents a year in Germany, and about 10,000 worldwide.

In July 1996, for example, a flock of starlings downed a giant Hercules transport plane in the Netherlands, killing 34 people. A year earlier, an AWACS surveillance plane crashed in Alaska after colliding with Canadian geese, claiming 24 lives.

Although many countries have bird warning systems nowadays, the Israeli radar system is unique worldwide. Located on the grounds of the Latrun military memorial, it isn't just used to protect against potential feathered projectiles, but also serves the purposes of research and promoting international understanding.

Weather and bird forcasting

For example, Leshem uses the radar to track birds that are active at night. Many small birds prefer to fly at night, and often land in Israel after midnight to rest. Large animals such as storks, however, need powerful thermal currents to keep them aloft. This observation enabled Leshem to develop a forecasting model that utilizes the morning weather report to pinpoint the coastal winds on which the storks will be sailing by noon.

The researcher is using a surveillance drone to film bird migration from the air. To keep an eye on storks over long distances, Leshem joined forces with zoologists at the Max Planck Institute's ornithological station on Lake Constance and had some animals fitted with satellite location devices.

Using this approach, the team discovered that "Princess" -- the most famous female stork in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt -- was spending her winters alone in South Africa, while her partner at the time, Jonas, wintered in Spain. Only in the spring did they come together again to mate.

Leshem uses these fantastic animal stories to get students excited about birds, ignoring man-made borders in the process. In a program titled "Migratory birds know no borders," children in Jordan, Palestine and Israel use the internet to exchange their experiences with and knowledge about feathered frequent flyers. In the next few years, German schools will join the approximately 250 schools in the Middle East that have been part of the program to date.