B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Type 8000
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Environment - Non Weather Related
After takeoff; we had just retracted the landing gear and were accelerating when; at the last second; I saw a black dot ahead of us in our turn left to a 200 heading. It appeared to be a bird. I tried to pull the nose up to climb above it; but it wheeled up; put its brakes on by pulling its wings back and then dropped off to the right. It entered our right engine and we immediately had a loud buzzing noise along with engine vibration at about 3.5 to 4 on the number 2 engine. I checked the engine N1s and N2s and the engine was still rotating; but the vibration continued unchecked. My First Officer and I discussed the parameters as I initially thought to call for the severe damage checklist; but instead elected to call for the engine vibration checklist as the engine was still running.After retarding the throttle to idle; the vibrations subsided. I elected to keep the engine running; but land configured for a single engine landing with flaps at 15 just in case the engine failed at any point. Landing and rollout were uneventful. I shut down number 2 engine after landing and had the fire trucks check out our number 2 engine for leaks or damage and clear us to taxi. At the gate; the damage to the fan blades on the rotor was apparent.
We elected to return to the airport for landing.
B737-700 flight crew reported a bird strike after takeoff which resulted in damage to the right engine and return to departure airport.