Narrative:

I was the pilot flying on this leg. We were on the departure route climbing through 4000 feet [and] as I began the left turn I caught a flash of something white out of the front of the aircraft and felt a thump on the nose of the aircraft. We were IMC at the time. First officer said 'what was that?' I replied 'bird strike!' at that time we got an #2 engine stall ECAM that came up; but it immediately went out. [At] this moment all engine parameters appeared normal. We asked ATC for a level off; which we did and leveled off at 6000 ft. We also got a burnt duck smell as well. I handed control over to first officer so I could assess the situation. All systems were normal; I scrolled through the system pages to verify this as well. There were no further ECAM messages to deal with. I [advised] ATC and I briefed the flight attendants about returning to [departure airport] and gave them the time to prepare. I then made a PA to the passengers about what we were going to do. I sent a message to dispatch via ACARS about what was going on. We then briefed the approach. I took back control of the aircraft for the approach and landing because the first officer's window was covered [with] the remnants of the bird. Normal landing and after we stopped the aircraft I instructed the passengers to 'remain seated' and we asked the emergency response crew to look the aircraft over which they did. We then taxied to the gate. After shutdown at the gate I entered the bird strike into the aircraft maintenance logbook and spoke to the mechanics. We walked around the aircraft and found damage to the radome and the #2 engine.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A321 Captain reported returning to the departure airport after experiencing a bird strike on initial climb.

Narrative: I was the pilot flying on this leg. We were on the departure route climbing through 4000 feet [and] as I began the left turn I caught a flash of something white out of the front of the aircraft and felt a thump on the nose of the aircraft. We were IMC at the time. First Officer said 'What was that?' I replied 'Bird Strike!' At that time we got an #2 Engine Stall ECAM that came up; but it immediately went out. [At] this moment all engine parameters appeared normal. We asked ATC for a level off; which we did and leveled off at 6000 ft. We also got a burnt duck smell as well. I handed control over to FO so I could assess the situation. All systems were normal; I scrolled through the system pages to verify this as well. There were no further ECAM messages to deal with. I [advised] ATC and I briefed the Flight Attendants about returning to [departure airport] and gave them the time to prepare. I then made a PA to the passengers about what we were going to do. I sent a message to Dispatch via ACARS about what was going on. We then briefed the approach. I took back control of the aircraft for the approach and landing because the FO's window was covered [with] the remnants of the bird. Normal landing and after we stopped the aircraft I instructed the passengers to 'Remain Seated' and we asked the emergency response crew to look the aircraft over which they did. We then taxied to the gate. After shutdown at the gate I entered the bird strike into the Aircraft Maintenance Logbook and spoke to the mechanics. We walked around the aircraft and found damage to the radome and the #2 engine.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.