Abstract
Small passerines, sometimes referred to as perching birds or songbirds, are the most abundant bird group in the United States (US) and Canada, and the most common among bird fatalities caused by collision with turbines at wind energy facilities. We used data compiled from 116 studies conducted in the US and Canada to estimate the annual rate of small-bird fatalities. It was necessary for us to calculate estimates of small-bird fatality rates from reported all-bird rates for 30% of studies. The remaining 70% of studies provided data on small-bird fatalities. We then adjusted estimates to account for detection bias and loss of carcasses from scavenging. These studies represented about 15% of current operating capacity (megawatts [MW]) for all wind energy facilities in the US and Canada and provided information on 4,975 bird fatalities, of which we estimated 62.5% were small passerines comprising 156 species. For all wind energy facilities currently in operation, we estimated that about 134,000 to 230,000 small-passerine fatalities from collision with wind turbines occur annually, or 2.10 to 3.35 small birds/MW of installed capacity. When adjusted for species composition, this indicates that about 368,000 fatalities for all bird species are caused annually by collisions with wind turbines. Other human-related sources of bird deaths, (e.g., communication towers, buildings [including windows]), and domestic cats) have been estimated to kill millions to billions of birds each year. Compared to continent-wide population estimates, the cumulative mortality rate per year by species was highest for black-throated blue warbler and tree swallow; 0.043% of the entire population of each species was estimated to annually suffer mortality from collisions with turbines. For the eighteen species with the next highest values, this estimate ranged from 0.008% to 0.038%, much lower than rates attributed to collisions with communication towers (1.2% to 9.0% for top twenty species).
Highlights
Wind energy production in the United States (US) and Canada has increased greatly in recent years
Our analysis drew upon a much larger set of monitoring efforts at wind energy facilities compared to other similar reviews
While we did not incorporate more-specific variables to further refine the effects on bird populations, we think the population effects we calculated allow comparisons to be made among species of small passerines
Summary
Wind energy production in the United States (US) and Canada has increased greatly in recent years. We are not aware of any existing comprehensive analyses addressing the interactions of passerine species with wind turbines This analysis will provide federal and state regulatory agency personnel, the wind industry, and other stakeholders with a better understanding of the overall rate of passerine fatalities from collisions with wind turbines and identify research and monitoring needs. Our objectives for this evaluation were to 1) identify monitoring studies from wind energy facilities in the US and Canada that contained adequate information for evaluation of small-bird fatality rates; 2) derive estimates for rates of annual mortality for small birds in studies that did not include small-bird mortality rates but rather reported mortality rates for all birds combined; 3) adjust all small-bird rates for bias and derive biome-level and continentwide rates; 4) determine the seasonal timing of fatalities for small. Passerines; and 5) estimate the population-level effect for species of small passerines in the US and Canada
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