Right now each bird does a down-forward trace (while flying to random targets) and gets upward thrust if it gets a hit, so you can increase your trace distance or thrust amount to fit your environment. If you are mindful of where your placing your sky targets you can avoid most issues.
You can also set-up a multi-trace system (Shameless plug for Fish) if your looking for an obstacle avoidance system 
Also Birds has the physics asset already set up- so you can always ragdoll on weapon trace hit, or toggle visibility and set off a particle effect… You bird murdering monster :)~