Center, Internet, Wildlife Damage Management
Human–Wildlife Interactions
Avian Fatalities at Wind Energy Facilities in North America: A Comparison of Recent Approaches
Date of this Version
Spring 2016
Document Type
Article
Citation
Human–Wildlife Interactions (Spring 2016) 10(1): article 3
doi: 10.26077/a4ec-ed37
Special topic: Wildlife and wind energy: Are they compatible?
Abstract
Three recent publications have estimated the number of birds killed each year by wind energy facilities at 2012 build-out levels in the United States. The 3 publications differ in scope, methodology, and resulting estimates. We compare and contrast characteristics of the approaches used in the publications. In addition, we describe decisions made in obtaining the estimates that were produced. Despite variation in the 3 approaches, resulting estimates were reasonably similar; about a quarter- to a half-million birds are killed per year by colliding with wind turbines.
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