Potential impact of wind farms on territories of large eagles in southeastern Spain

Abstract

Although wind farms in Spain have increased in numbers in recent years, their impact on birds, particularly large raptors, has received relatively little attention in the scientific literature. We study the potential impact of 72 wind energy developments planned for the south-east of Spain covering 128 golden eagle and 152 Bonelli's eagle territories using nearest neighbour distances (NND) as an indicator of potential future interactions (abandonment, displacement and collision risk). Our analyses indicate low levels of potential interactions between wind farms and large eagles, and suggest that, of

Non-territorial GPS-tagged golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos at two Scottish wind farms: Avoidance influenced by preferred habitat distribution, wind speed and blade motion status

“…Golden eagle collision fatalities are empirically more likely in some other populations [ 8 , 10 , 73 , 120 ], although in others the predominance of collision risk is more an assumption [ 71 , 121 ] which may not hold [ 72 ] and migrating eagles may show altitudinal avoidance [ 43 ]. It has been argued [ 57 ] that understanding the balance between the two processes (avoidance and collision) in large raptors is in genotypic predisposition of wariness to the human “super-predator” and phenotypic cost-benefits in its expression.…”

“…Several studies of golden eagles indicate or assume that birds are not displaced from wind turbines i.e. do not show meso- or macro-avoidance, and so are vulnerable to collision mortality [ 22 , 32 , 34 , 44 , 71 – 73 , 82 – 87 ] although see [ 43 , 72 ]. Results from Scotland are contrary, in substantially finding macro-avoidance [ 56 , 57 , 88 , 89 ].…”

Home range and resource selection by GPS-monitored adult golden eagles in the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion: Implications for wind power development

“…Evidence for regional declines in North American golden eagle ( Aquila chrysaetos ) populations (Kochert and Steenhof , Hoffman and Smith , Boal et al , Millsap et al ) has focused recent national attention on understanding eagle ecology and conservation, particularly with regard to establishing consistent inventory and monitoring protocols (Pagel et al ) and the implications of energy development on populations (Fielding et al , Johnston , United States Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] ). Golden eagles have been shown to be susceptible to turbine blade strikes (Hunt , Thelander and Smallwood , Chamberlain et al , Noguera et al , Pagel et al ) and turbine construction has been suggested, but not fully demonstrated, to be a cause of displacement of nesting eagles (Walker et al , Martínez et al ). Accordingly, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service recommends an adaptive management approach for delineating potential conflict zones between golden eagles and wind turbines by integrating information on eagle range use as it becomes available (USFWS ).…”

Composição e dinâmica da avifauna da usina eólica da praia da Pedra do Sal, Delta do Parnaíba, Piauí, Brasil

“…Travassos et al (2005) ressaltaram que a localização de uma usina eólica é um dos fatores que podem causar impactos sobre a avifauna, como as que estão inseridas em rotas migratórias, e um exemplo disso são as usinas eólicas implantadas no sudeste da Espanha (Martinez et al, 2010). Na Usina Eólica da Pedra do Sal foram observadas aves migratórias em período de invernada e alimentação, e a diversidade e a riqueza das espécies permite inferir o baixo impacto indireto causado por esse empreendimento.…”