Bird smashes through pilot's windscreen at 300 kilometres per hour 'like a missile'

Ibis smashes through plane windscreen like a 'missile'. (Supplied: Jim Robins)

An ag pilot has walked away unscathed after an ibis smashed through the windscreen of his spray plane that was travelling at close to 300 kilometres per hour.

Jim Robins recorded a video of the carnage after the collision, showing a dead ibis that had crashed into the cockpit of his plane.

The video has been viewed more than 160,000 times on social media, with people stunned that he was uninjured and was able to safely land the plane.

Mr Robins is a veteran ag pilot and owner of Robins Aviation, based out of Kerang in northern Victoria.

He described to ABC Rural the moment he collided with the ibis.

"I was out spraying some peas near Quambatook and was just finishing a spray run and pulled up out of the paddock and looked out the window to check the spray nozzles when I heard an almighty bang," he said.

"So I looked back forward and realised there was something hanging through the windscreen.

Ibis 'like a missile'

Mr Robins said the combined speed of the collision would have been enormous.

"I was probably doing somewhere between 250 and 300 kilometres an hour and obviously he was flying toward me, so I'd hate to think what the closing speed was," he said.

The collision with the ibis destroyed the windscreen of Jim Robins' spray plane. (Supplied: Jim Robins)

While the situation that confronted him is unnerving to hear recounted, Mr Robins took it all in his stride.

"I just slowed the plane down, because I had quite a lot of glass flying in and landing on me, and decided I best fly back to my base and pull up for the day," he said.

"There was a big hole in the windscreen, so I could see quite clearly through it, so I was able to make a successful landing quite easily."

'Could have been worse'

For a brief moment, Mr Robins thought a long-held fear was playing out before he realised the bird was an ibis.

"So I've always had a small fear of having a very upset wedge-tailed eagle in the cockpit with me and I did have that initial thought.

"But once it landed in my lap I worked out pretty quickly what it was."

A new windscreen has already been fitted, and Mr Robins is confident this one will hold up to any future collisions.

"The one I had was just a standard windscreen, but there's a company in the [United] States that makes a bulletproof windscreen and fortunately there was one of those in stock in Ballarat," he said.

'It's literally bulletproof, so it should stand up to anything flying at me at a great rate of knots."