Hitting a bird could have been dangerous...did u smash your visor?
Thanks for sharing your run on here, the great thing about bikes is that it is cheap fun and to mechanically break or damage a bike is next to impossible, whereas the headaches associated with a modified car can become unreliable and expensive.
On the flip side, u can easily break yourself on a bike which is why i stopped riding a few yrs BUT ive kept running gear just in case