Soave Pilot - ECL = Engine Control lever. Throttle, or Speed Select lever as Eurocopter call it.
Instead, the bird strikes causes the canopy to fail 'substantially,
Surely that's the point - it DIDN'T fail substantially. that's why it took so long to establish the cause (hindered by most of teh bird remains having been washed off.) the ECLs were displaced by the shock transmittal through the frame and assisted by worn triggers.