The Bird Men have developed a way to reduce losses of their starships to planets. When a Bird Men starship with beams, but without fuel, enters orbit around a planet, neither the planet, nor a starbase in orbit, may attack the starship. Use of the ATT and NUK Friendly Codes will not cause the planet to attack such a starship. As it is required for the birdman starship to be out of fuel, it is inherently protected against Starship-to-starship combat.
The reason the Bird Men have this advantage is not definitely known. It has been theorized that the Bird Men provide Intelligence information to planetary governments in exchange for this advantage, but no Government official has ever verified this and survived to testify.
This racial advantage is enabled by default, and can not be disabled. No special Mission or Friendly Code is required to trigger this advantage.
This racial advantage is free, and is available to The Empire of the Birds.
See also: Out of Fuel.