Actually a flock of birds is orders of magnitude more dangerous for an aircraft than a drone .It's orders of magnitude bigger so it's harder to avoid /easier to hit and can do what no drone can - shut down multiple engines .
As for hysteria - look here :
Unusual Aviation Pictures
But there was no evidence for a birdstrike - the pilots were extra jumpy about birds because there was a fatal birdstrike accident on the same type just a couple of months before .