>https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/video-of-air-force-two-carrying-vp-mike-pence-hitting-bird/vi-BB19k923
In the video, you can definitely see 2 birds in flight before one gets sucked into the engine.
The pilot already is climbing due to takeoff and you are supposed to climb in the case of birds, due to the fact they dive when threatened. That is what both birds did, but one chose poorly and dived into the flight path of AF2.
When it gets sucked into the engine, you see the sparks.
The pilot after a short time starts to level out the plane which is not something you should do on takeoff. So they were aware something was wrong fairly quickly.