Cybersquatter
Birds are potentially a major safety issue for reasons both you and eastern wiseguy alluded.
The problem is, is that the threat is common. Most pilots have had so many near-misses with birds that the threat of birdstrikes is perceptually lower. I've only got around 4000 hours flying. During that time I've hit two birds; both on landing. I couldn't count the number of near-misses that I've had. (Have you ever stood on the cerb of an arterial road? Less than 1 metre from cars and trucks moving at 80-100km/h? Very risky, but you've done it so often and without incident you don't see the risk of a driver having a "bad moment").
IMHO, most pilots won't really care unless they see the birds in front of them when they're lined up on the runway. In the scenario you described, unless that flock of birds was directly in front of the aircraft when the aircraft was lined-up on the runway, the pilots wouldn't have cared.
Birds do get sucked into aircraft engine intakes, but that doesn't mean that it will automatically create an engine failure/fire. In a modern jet engine, only a small percentage of the face of the fan goes into the combustion chamber. A small bird such as a sparrow or starling may go through the main fan with little to no damage.
It should be noted that the Hudson river aircraft went through a FLOCK of geese (Geese are 20+ kg birds) and I'm pretty certain that the bird that got sucked into the 757 on the video was a "large" bird.
Many airports use bird scarers of various descriptions (places where I fly are either a bloke in a car or with a shotgun loaded with blanks). Sadly, birds love airports.