Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Environment - Non Weather Related
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.
We took off out of ZZZ about 800' we were issued a turn to heading 360 in the turn about 1000' a large bird struck in the bottom of the prop arc in front of the engine intake. Right after it happened we smelled singed feathers and burned meat through the vents. There were no abnormal indications in the engine instruments so we decided to continue in the pattern and requested priority for a precautionary landing and remained within gliding distance of the airport at all times. After the precautionary landing we were able to taxi back to [FBO] and unload the aircraft there. On post flight inspection the was visible evidence that the engine had ingested a substantial amount of the bird after it struck the prop arc but the prop appeared to be undamaged.
PC-12 flight crew reported hitting a turkey on departure; then returning to airport as a precaution.