Abstract
This paper examines the impacts wind farms can have on birds (collision risks). Other concerns include the potential disturbances to the bird’s environment in general. Fortunately, common eiders tended to stay away from the wind farms in general. The study also suggests that the eiders avoided the wind farms not by the action of the rotors but the presence of the wind farms themselves. However, this could also be from the reduced habitat by the wind farm structures. Nevertheless, avoidance was good during daylight hours in normal weather conditions, but higher in poor weather and darkness. Overall, the needs for further study are important. Other information that would prove useful would be flight sequences, population size, and other appropriate risk factors.
The study was conducted in southern Denmark. Researches used decoys placed on the sea surface by the turbines to determine:
- The number of common eiders flying
- The landing frequency.