Pc-12 flight crew reported hitting a turkey on departure; then returning to airport as a precaution.

Attributes
ACN	1592863
Time
Date	201811
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PC-12
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal

Narrative:

After departure at ZZZ; we were given a left turn to the north and passed off to approach. Coming through about 1000' AGL; we noticed a flock of what looked like turkey vultures circling at our altitude. As we continued our climb to our assigned 2000'; one of the birds maneuvered directly into our flight-path and hit the front of the aircraft. Upon impact; I requested an immediate turn-back to ZZZ (we were positioned for the downwind already). My co-pilot; who was acting as pilot flying; was monitoring the engine parameters and we did not see any fluctuations. Approach asked if we required any assistance and as PIC; I deemed we did not; but needed landing priority. I noticed a burning smell from the bird possibly being ingested. Approach passed us back to the tower and we landed with no issues. After we de-boarded our passengers; we did a quick visual inspection and determined that a large bird had entered the engine intake. Operations; management; and maintenance were all contacted and the aircraft was grounded.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PC-12 flight crew reported hitting a turkey on departure; then returning to airport as a precaution.

Narrative: After departure at ZZZ; we were given a left turn to the north and passed off to Approach. Coming through about 1000' AGL; we noticed a flock of what looked like turkey vultures circling at our altitude. As we continued our climb to our assigned 2000'; one of the birds maneuvered directly into our flight-path and hit the front of the aircraft. Upon impact; I requested an immediate turn-back to ZZZ (we were positioned for the downwind already). My co-pilot; who was acting as Pilot Flying; was monitoring the engine parameters and we did not see any fluctuations. Approach asked if we required any assistance and as PIC; I deemed we did not; but needed landing priority. I noticed a burning smell from the bird possibly being ingested. Approach passed us back to the tower and we landed with no issues. After we de-boarded our passengers; we did a quick visual inspection and determined that a large bird had entered the engine intake. Operations; Management; and Maintenance were all contacted and the aircraft was grounded.

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.