Can sound protect eagles from wind turbine collisions?

MAY 15, 2019

by Acoustical Society of America

Every year, bald and golden eagles are killed when they inadvertently fly into wind turbine blades. One possible way to prevent these deaths is to chase the birds away with acoustic signals—sound. To determine what types of sounds are most effective in deterring the birds, researchers at the University of Minnesota and their colleagues tested the behavioral responses of bald eagles to a battery of both natural and synthetic acoustic stimuli.

Auditory neuroscientist JoAnn McGee will present the results of those tests at the 177th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which takes place from May 13-17, at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky.

Three adult bald eagles were used for the study: two birds that are unable to survive in the wild and live permanently at the university's Raptor Center, where the testing was done, and one bird undergoing rehabilitation at the center prior to release back into the wild.

Each bird was tested within a 9- by 7-foot space lined with sound-damping materials. The bird was perched on a bar in the center of the room, with loudspeakers mounted on the wall to its right and left; a high-resolution video camera mounted directly in front of the bird captured its reaction to the sounds.

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Wind developer offers to conserve land to lessen turbines’ threat to birds

Turbines in the Bull Hill Wind project in Township 16 in Hancock County rotate in the breeze in this May 2018 file photo. Developers for the proposed Weaver Wind project a few miles away are offering to conserve 5,800 acres of land in eastern coastal Maine to mitigate the impact that 22-turbine project is expected to have on birds.

By Bill Trotter, BDN Staff • April 25, 2019 9:05 am
Updated: April 25, 2019 10:12 am

A wind power development firm behind a proposal that state officials think will pose a threat to birds is offering to conserve 5,800 acres of woods and wetlands in Hancock and Washington counties as wildlife habitat.

Longroad Energy, which has applied to the state Department of Environmental Protection for approval to erect 22 turbines in Eastbrook and Osborn in Hancock County, has the support of the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the mitigation proposal, which in effect would serve as compensation for the adverse impact the turbines would have on birds.

In 2015, the DIF&W publicly opposed the Weaver Wind project, which at the time was being proposed by the now-defunct SunEdison renewable energy firm. Officials with DIF&W noted at the time that the impact on birds of the existing Bull Hill Wind farm nearby in Township 16 already was significant and that erecting more turbines a few miles away “will represent significant adverse cumulative impact to migrating birds.”

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Robin hushed: Wind turbines are making songbirds change their tune

December 21, 2018 by Mark Whittingham, The Conversation

Wind turbines are a leading source of green energy which could supply 12% of the world's energy by 2020. But their use is often criticised for its impact on wildlife, particularly birds. Larger birds can collide with turbines and some have even learned to avoid flying near them.

Impacts on smaller birds are less well documented as they tend to manoeuvre around turbines and can avoid impacting with them much more easily than larger species. My own research showed that birds associated with farmland, including a range of songbirds, were generally unfazed – their winter distribution didn't change in the presence of turbines.

But there were also some intriguing patterns in the behaviour of skylarks in early spring. We noticed their numbers were generally lower close to turbines. I wondered then whether the noise emitted by the turbines might be responsible.

Wind turbines and songbird communication

Much of the evidence for how wind turbines affect birds concerns their distribution patterns around turbines, but we know little about why birds choose to avoid them. The robin, a widespread small bird which lives in rural areas where turbines are common, seemed a perfect candidate to investigate.

Robins are an aggressive but popular species in the UK, having recently been voted the nation's favourite bird. Males are territorial beyond proportion to their diminutive size. Nevertheless, we subjected territorial male robins to one of three treatments – another robin's song, a robin's song with wind turbine noise, and wind turbine noise alone – via a sound recording device inside their territory.

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Migration forecasts could help prevent wind turbines and buildings from killing millions of birds

By Erik Stokstad Apr. 5, 2018 , 4:15 PM

Each spring, billions of birds fly vast distances to spend the summer in North America, most of them traveling at night. It's a trip fraught with peril: Many slam into wind turbines or brightly lit buildings. Now, a new forecasting system for bird migration could help put an end to millions of those deaths by warning wind farm operators and building managers of incoming migrations 3 days in advance.

Although hawks and other large species migrate during the day, most small birds migrate at night to avoid predators and enjoy better flying conditions. The daily legs of these migrations depend heavily on the weather. If conditions are too cold or rainy, migrants hang out in trees until the skies clear. And birds are more likely to continue their journeys when warm air signals an incoming, southerly tailwind. Since 2012, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has made predictions about these migrations by using observer sightings and regional weather reports on its BirdCast website.

To scale up and automate these forecasts Benjamin Van Doren, a Ph.D. student at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and Kyle Horton, a postdoc at the Cornell lab, built a computer model of weather and bird migration. They began with weather radar, the only effective way to monitor night-time migrations. Individual birds can't be detected, but radar can reveal the density of birds in the airspace: 60 to 70 birds per cubic kilometer in a light migration, and as many as 1700 in a heavy one.

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This 'acoustic lighthouse' could keep birds from killing themselves on wind turbines

Clean energy doesn't have to be deadly.

By Jeremy DeatonNexus Media March 13, 2018

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recently falsely claimed that wind turbines kill 750,000 birds each year. In actuality, wind turbines kill a little more than 350,000birds annually — which is far fewer than cars, house cats, or plate-glass windows put to death. What’s the biggest threat to our flying friends? According to the Audubon Society, it’s climate change.

Of course, to draw down heat-trapping carbon pollution, we need to ramp up wind power by an order of magnitude, which will put a lot more birds in danger. Fortunately, it seems scientists have found a fix. Researchers at the College of William & Mary have built an innovative device that alerts birds in danger of crashing into a wind turbine.

“There’s a lot of interest in developing near-shore or offshore wind energy. Putting large, rotating structures that look like mincemeat-makers in the sky isn’t going to be good for the birds,” said biologist John Swaddle, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Swaddle wants to equip turbines with his new invention, the Acoustic Lighthouse, which warns bird to look up before it’s too late.

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Detection, deterrent system will help eagles, wind turbines coexist better

Date:  March 19, 2018

Source:  Oregon State University

Researchers have taken a key step toward helping wildlife coexist more safely with wind power generation by demonstrating the success of an impact detection system that uses vibration sensors mounted to turbine blades.

The findings are important because while wind power is generally regarded as green energy, danger to birds -- particularly federally protected bald eagles and golden eagles -- is a concern.

Corresponding author Roberto Albertani and collaborators at the OSU College of Engineering and the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science's Hatfield Marine Science Center have created an integrated sensor system that can tell if a bird or bat hits a turbine.

The system can also determine what species was involved in the collision.

"If a turbine strikes a generic bird, sad as that is, it's not as critical as striking a protected golden eagle, which could potentially trigger down time in turbine operations and losses in revenue, and most important the loss of a member of a protected species," said Albertani, Boeing Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design at Oregon State University.

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Sound waves could be used to prevent millions of birds flying into wind turbines

'Putting large, rotating structures that look like mincemeat-makers in the sky isn't going to be good'

Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 

Friday 16 February 2018 21:41 GMT

Devices that use focused sounds to prevent birds from crashing into tall structures, or gathering in places where they are not wanted, have been developed by scientists. 

It is thought they could be employed to prevent the deaths of millions of birds every year that collide with wind turbines.

When other structures such as mobile phone masts and buildings are taken into consideration, the number of bird deaths resulting from collisions is thought to go into the billions.

At the same time, birds cause an enormous amount of damage to human infrastructure, feeding on agricultural products and flying into aeroplanes.

In response to these problems, behavioural biologist Dr John Swaddle has helped develop technological solutions that use sound waves to drive birds away from areas where they are causing disruption.

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Owls' wings could hold the key to beating wind turbine noise

Date:  July 4, 2017

Source:  IOP Publishing

Summary:  Inspiration from owls' wings could allow aircraft and wind turbines to become quieter, suggests a new study. Researchers studied the serrations in the leading edge of owls' wings, gaining new insight into how they work to make the birds' flight silent. Their results point towards potential mechanisms for noise suppression in wind turbines, aircraft, multi-rotor drones and other machines.

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Wind turbines a risk to birds living as far as 100 miles away

"The golden eagle fatalities at this one site have demonstrated consequences that extend across much of the range of the species across North America," said researcher J. Andrew DeWoody.

By Brooks Hays   |   Sept. 29, 2016 at 2:03 PM

ALTAMONT PASS, Calif., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- New research proves wind turbines aren't just a risk to local birds. Birds from as far as 100 miles away are getting caught in their blades.

Large birds like golden eagles are especially prone to collisions with wind turbines. Recently, scientists with Purdue University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the effects of turbines at Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in northern California on nearby golden eagle populations.

With 5,000 turbines, APWRA is one of the largest wind farms in the world. It's also one of the oldest. The reason the turbines were placed along Altamont Pass is the same reason why eagles congregate there.

"Eagles tend to use that habitat around the turbines. It's windy there, so they can save energy and soar, and their preferred prey, California ground squirrels, is abundant there," J. Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue professor of genetics, explained in a news release. "As they soar, these eagles are often looking straight down, and they fail to see the rapidly moving turbine blades. They get hit by the blades, and carcasses are found on the ground under the turbines."

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Texas tech researcher aiding in study of eagle interaction with wind turbines

Date: June 2, 2016

Source: Texas Tech University

In the avian world, the eagle is known as the apex predator, meaning no other bird considers an eagle its prey. The eagle is on the top of the avian food chain.

But that doesn't mean they live without dangers, most of them humanmade. There's one humanmade danger in particular that Texas Tech University professor Clint Boal is working with several governmental agencies to discover ways to mitigate golden eagle deaths as much as possible.

With the push toward clean energy, West Texas and Eastern New Mexico have seen a tremendous growth in the popularity and construction of wind turbine farms. But those farms, while essential to ending the United States' dependency on fossil fuels, have created a danger for the golden eagle in the same areas.

"Wind energy development throughout the western U.S. is ongoing and rampant, and it is an important renewable energy source and we all recognize that," said Boal, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources Management in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. "But it doesn't come without some ecological cost that can be either displacement of wildlife or the direct mortality of wildlife. If the species is really abundant, it may not be a substantive issue. But when you have a species that is not as abundant, has a long life span, and has low productivity, it does become an issue."

That's why the research Boal and his colleagues are performing is so important. Boal, a member of the United States Geological Survey's Cooperative Research Unit at Texas Tech, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Region 2 office and its Western Golden Eagle Team, are in the process of studying golden eagle movements and potential interactions with wind turbines.

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Wind Turbines in Southern Israel Would Hurt Bird Migration, Environmentalists Say

The bird migration route through Israel is the second most-important in the world.

Zafrir Rinat Nov 19, 2015 2:50 AM

A company producing electricity from wind-power seeks to install giant turbines in the Eilat area, which environmentalists fear endanger the important international bird migration route in the area.

Last week Israel joined an international agreement protecting birds of prey in Europe, Asia and Africa. The agreement, signed in Bonn, Germany, recommends not erecting wind turbines on migration routes because the birds fly into the turbines and are injured or killed by the blades.

The bird migration route through Israel is the second most-important in the world.

Last week Eilot Wind company submitted to the Southern District Planning and Building Committee a proposal to install 13 wind turbines built by Siemens in an area north of Eilat. The 180-meter-high turbines, with 13-meter-long blades, would be placed one kilometer apart and produce 42 megawatts of electricity.

The Environmental Protection Ministry’s representative on the zoning committee said the region’s ecology and landscape were sensitive and expressed concern that birds flying in the area would be harmed. Representatives from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel said the project threatened an important avian migration route.

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Way for eagles and wind turbines to coexist

Date: August 27, 2015

Source: University of Waterloo

Summary: Collisions with wind turbines kill about 100 golden eagles a year in some locations, but a new study that maps both potential wind-power sites and nesting patterns of the birds reveals sweet spots, where potential for wind power is greatest with a lower threat to nesting eagles.

Brad Fedy, a professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, and Jason Tack, a PhD student at Colorado State University, took nesting data from a variety of areas across Wyoming, and created models using a suite of environmental variables and referenced them against areas with potential for wind development. The results of their research appear in PLOS ONE.

Increased mortalities threaten the future of long-lived species and, when a large bird like a golden eagle is killed by wind development, the turbine stops, causes temporary slowdowns and can result in fines to operators.

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American Bird Conservancy: Hundreds of thousands of birds could be collateral damage of bigger wind turbines

Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2015 12:15 am

BY MICHAEL PARR | 2 comments

When the Department of Energy released a report last week championing the construction of larger, more-powerful wind turbines, the wind industry unsurprisingly greeted the news with enthusiasm.

By extending the “hub-height” of turbines up to 360 feet, the chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association said, wind energy could expand to all 50 states.

Less ardent was the association’s response to well-documented concerns over the half-million birds that die each year from collisions with existing turbines: Some migrating birds, a spokesman said, fly too high to be harmed by rotor blades.

Indeed. Some birds do fly very high in the sky. But far more travel at the very altitudes that would put them at greatest risk of colliding with these taller turbines. The risk is especially high during spring and fall, when migrating birds take to the skies in billions, many traveling vast distances between their wintering and breeding grounds.

A new report this month from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls into question the wind industry’s assertion that birds fly well above wind turbines’ rotor blades. Using radar, researchers examined fall migration at two locations in Michigan. They found that the greatest density of birds and bats migrating at night occurred from 300 to 500 feet above ground. That’s almost directly at hub-height for the new generation of giant turbines.

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Study tracking where bird migration paths could cross offshore wind zone

Bird watchers know where sea ducks like the surf scoter breed — across Canada and Alaska — and exactly where they devote their winters — along the U.S. coasts, in bodies of water like the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. Exactly where they go in among is a bit of a mystery.

But with wind turbines possibly dotting the horizon off of Ocean City beaches by the finish of the decade, potentially developing a new obstacle on the birds' migration routes, answers are needed.

Teams have spent three years in waters from Long Island to the Carolinas in search of surf scoters and two other sorts of sea birds, capturing them and releasing them with tracking devices. Scientists completed their tagging final month and have begun collecting information on their movement patterns, planning to continue following the birds as extended as attainable.

The study aims to additional clearly map the routes the birds take involving seasons, and to learn whether or not they cross a 125-square-mile zone established for possible wind farms. Early information suggests the birds keep closer to the coast than the wind farm zones, but a lot more nonetheless requires to be learned about how the turbines could impact wildlife, scientists stated.

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Access Science: Wind turbines pose a threat to the birds of Ireland

Dick Ahlstrom

Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 01:00

First published:Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 01:00

What do swans, golden plovers, hen harriers and geese have in common? Aside from being able to fly, they are all to be found on a list of the 22 bird species most affected by the positioning of wind turbines.

Sometimes it is a flight risk, for example with swans that often fly at a height that leaves them at risk of the whirring blades.

For others, the turbines represent a hazard to habitat, closing off space that previously would have been ideal for nesting.

It is a real challenge to find a way around this problem, says Dr Shane McGuinness, a member of the policy and advocacy team at BirdWatch Ireland. “Ireland must adhere to the Birds and Habitats Directive, which protects bird habitats but also has international obligations to fight climate change,” he says.

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4 important bird habitats in Canada listed as 'in danger'

Urban development, resource extraction and wind turbines are threatening some of the most important bird habitats in Canada, a new report says.

Four of Canada's top bird habitats have made a list of 356 around the world that are considered "in danger," in a report by the conservation group BirdLife International:

Boundary Bay in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, one of Canada's richest sites for migratory waterbirds.

Prince Edward Point in eastern Ontario, another important area for migratory waterbirds.

N.W.T.'s Mackenzie River Delta, an important habitat for snow geese.

Lancaster Sound Polynya in Nunavut, an important habitat for a small seabird called the dovekie.

Some of those areas are not protected at all, while others are only partially protected.

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Colorado birds receive protection against wind turbines

Wind farms in Colorado must soon adhere to new legislation to protect birds

The US’ first wind energy legislation to protect birds against wind energy and other renewable energy has been passed. The Bird Protection Act will come into force in January 2015, requiring energy producers to ensure that their facilities protect birds and other wildlife.

The bill – drafted by State Senator David Balmer – referenced a recent study, which stated that in 2012, 573,000 birds were killed by the wind industry. Another study also referenced by the bill estimated that around 1.4 million birds will be killed annually by 2030, based on current unregulated wind industry expansion.

As of early next year, wind energy producers will be required to follow ‘Bird Smart wind energy standards’, which will include the following:

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Endangered vultures face added threat

January 30 2014 at 09:17am 

By Tony Carnie

Durban - Two endangered African vulture species face danger from dozens of new wind turbines in Lesotho, the world bird conservation network Birdlife International warned on Wednesday.

Reacting to the approval of a wind farm near the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg world heritage site in KwaZulu-Natal, Birdlife said the 42 turbines were likely to have “severe impacts” on vulture conservation.

The Letseng wind farm is in one of the main breeding and roosting grounds of the Bearded Vulture and Cape Vulture.

There are only 100 breeding pairs of Bearded Vulture in southern Africa, with nearly 60 percent of the population in Lesotho. This species is listed as endangered, but is expected to be relisted as critically endangered in the next edition of the Red Data book of birds.

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For the birds (and the bats): 8 ways wind power companies are trying to prevent deadly collisions

Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are killed by wind turbines in the U.S. each year, including some protected species such as the golden eagle and the Indiana bat. That’s only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions killed by buildings, pesticides, fossil-fuel power plants, and other human causes, but it’s still worrying — especially as wind power is experiencing record growth.

Both the wind industry and the federal government have been under intense public scrutiny over the issue in recent weeks. In late November, the Obama administration fined Duke Energy Renewables $1 million for illegally killing birds, the first time a wind company has been prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

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Turbine company hire bird expert

A full-time ornithologist is to be employed to monitor winter bird movements around the wind turbine test site at Hunterston.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will employ the naturalist to ensure there are no negative impacts on the environment surrounding the site.

The sand and mudflats at Hunterston are an important wintering area for a variety of shorebirds, and birdwatchers fear many species may be scared away by the ongoing work.

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