Hello again dear readers!
For this post, I will be looking into birds and their interactions with wind farms. I have already mentioned some impacts of offshore wind farms on seabirds in my previous post, but I will be looking more into the impacts of onshore wind farms on birds.
Kestrels are one species of bird which are at risk of colliding with wind turbines. Image by Daniel Polák from Pixabay
Other than noise pollution, wind turbines can also cause bird fatalities as the birds can collide with the turbines as they fly. As wind farms are generally established in places far from tall buildings, to take advantage of strong winds, these sites could overlap with the habitats of birds, which could result in a higher probability of collisions. Birds that use air currents to fly are also likely to be found near the wind farms. Collision rates depend on the species of bird, how tall the turbine is, the time of the year and many other factors. Before wind turbines are built, the local species and their flight patterns and behaviour should be factored in to reduce the chances of birds hitting turbines. While there is a wide range of collision rates (it is generally less than 1 collision per turbine in a year, but it really depends on the factors mentioned above), it should still be reduced as far as possible. A few birds per year is still a lot in the long run, so it shouldn’t be dismissed as insignificant.
Another impact of wind farms on birds is that their habitat is reduced, causing them to move away from their original living space. Similar to collision rates, the impact of habitat loss varies with the type of species present near the wind farm. Birds which live in habitats which have seen a lot of human influence are less likely to be affected by the construction of wind farms, while birds which live in more untouched areas are more likely to be displaced. Since birds tend to avoid human developments, the building of wind farms could really affect their populations because of the change or loss of habitat. Currently, there isn’t enough evidence to show that birds can adapt to the change in habitat, so I think that wind farms shouldn’t be built in places where there are many birds present. Maybe more research could be done to find out if birds could adapt to the presence of wind farms, like how the wind turbines in the sea can serve as a new habitat for marine life. I would suggest camouflage but that would cause the problem of collisions to increase if the birds can’t see the turbines, so I can’t think of any solutions other than ruling out bird-rich locations as potential sites for wind farms. (｡╯︵╰｡)
I hope that this post helps show how our desire to save biodiversity can conflict with our goal of producing cleaner energy.
Until next time!
~Rayzel
Hi Rayzel!
I certainly did not know about collisions between birds and turbines before I read your post. Not sure if most birds are colour-blind but if they aren’t, is there a specific colour that’s more visible to them? Perhaps the turbines could use that colour to increase visibility for the birds and hence reduce collision rates. Would very much like to hear your opinion on this suggestion!
Cheers,
Yu Xun
Hi Yu Xun!
I went to check and birds can see colour, in fact, they can distinguish more colour than us (they can see UV light and hence a wider range of colour)! Regarding the question of whether there are any colours which are more visible to birds, I sadly wasn’t able to find any reliable research on this, but many lifestyle websites said that white is the colour that birds tend to avoid (see here and here). There was also a suggestion that the birds could be scared away by moving/reflective surfaces/colours, but this study found that the effects are limited and may not be very effective. Furthermore, they said that it is possible that the birds would become used to the rotating mirrors, so I’m not sure if this is a viable solution. I think that if there is more research done on what colours birds tend to avoid (other than which prey/food colours they avoid), we should definitely use that knowledge to help avoid bird collisions with wind turbines!
Thank you for your question!
~Rayzel
Hi Rayzel & Yu Xun,
First, let me say that I love Yu Xun’s innovative thinking ! Fantastic. And I don’t want to minimise that. However, as expected from people who are in yr 1 and may not be very familiar with birds, he has a misconception, which you gracefully correct (awesome !).
Here’s a tip to help you both think through things like this. I’m guessing both of you have observed that birds, as a vertebrate class, are garishly coloured (not to say there aren’t drab bird species, such as shorebirds). Compare them with mammals, which are generally not garishly coloured (except for maybe some primates like mandrills, for example).
What can you learn from these observations ? Well, a reasonable hypothesis is that animals that are brightly coloured, especially ones that use their colours as sexual signals, as many birds do, have colour vision. Of course, it’s also possible that an animal’s bright colours are evolved as visual signals for other animals, like, perhaps as a warning to potential predators.
Indeed, birds have excellent colour vision and most mammals are (in human terms) colour-blind to some extent (they only have two types of cone receptors), with the exception of primates (though I’m not sure if all primate species have more than two types of cones).
Again, no criticism meant here, just an encouragement to try and use your own knowledge, observations and logic when confronted with new questions you don’t know the answers to.