Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Saving birds from power lines, wind turbines?
By my count there are at least two dozen dead white storks in this photo taken in Saudi Arabia after they flew into the power lines — part of a wider problem in which millions of birds die every year by flying into obstacles put up by people.
This weekend, May 9-10, thousands of people around the world are marking a U.N.-backed “Migratory Bird Day” (yes, it’s a long day) with a theme about “Barriers to Migration” — such as buildings, wind turbines, power lines and fences.
It’s easy to see how birds might fly by accident into thin wires like those above south of Jeddah but harder to understand why they slam into enormous buildings — some, apparently, may be flying towards what they think is the safety of a tree and end up crashing into a window in which the tree is reflected.
And the blades of wind turbines spin at up to 200 km (125 miles) per hour, making them all but invisible.
“It is estimated that bird-strike due to collisions with man-made structures is responsible for the deaths of many millions of birds worldwide every year,” a statement from the organisers says.
And the obstacles come in addition to problems for birds such as clearing of forests or woodlands for farmland and desertification linked to climate change.
Among recommendations are siting power lines, communications masts, turbines etc away from migratory routes or out of valleys or wetlands where many birds congregate.
Migratory bird marathons to get longer due climate change
Migratory birds have an amazing ability to grow muscles before their flights by eating a lot but without hard training. Imagine being able to copy that — get in shape by lounging on the sofa gorging yourself for weeks and then run a marathon.
But there are signs that birds will be in trouble in future because climate change will shift their breeding grounds further north in Europe, according to a study of European warblers today. (for a story, click here) Wintering grounds in Africa or southern Europe are unlikely to move so much.
That means, for instance, that whitethroats (above right) that fly from south of the Sahara Desert to Europe and back twice a year may have to travel an extra 400 km (250 miles) towards the end of the century, on top of a one-way trip that can already be up to 6,000 km.
The birds may need new protected areas for stopovers in southern Europe where they can refuel on bugs, according to the scientists, led by Stephen Willis of Durham University in England.
Flying thousands of km twice a year is a gigantic test and the extra few hundred km could be the difference between life and death, Willis told me.
Birds have of course adapted before — to Ice Ages or the drying of the Sahara thousands of years ago. But will they be able to do so again as climate change adds to other pressures, such as a loss of habitats to farmland or cities?
(Photo: Sue Tranter, copyright RSPB Images)
Vertical axis wind turbine is better performance than horizonal one in protecting birds. However this is difficult to avoid in current technology. A new radar device is testing for saving birds but it is just a testing product.