20th August, 2020
By Joe Pinkstone, Mailonline, www.dailymail.co.uk
- Researchers paints a blade black on four wind turbines on island of Smola
- Researchers used sniffer dogs to look for bird carcasses underneath the turbines
- After they were painted, the amount of bird deaths dropped by 72 per cent
Painting one blade of a wind turbine makes it easier for birds to avoid a deadly encounter.
A study found that painting one of the four white blades on a wind turbine black reduces the amount of dead birds by 72 per cent.
Scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research conducted a trial on the remote island of Smola comparing how many birds were killed by four painted turbine compared to their untouched neighbors.
A study found that painting one of the four white blades on a wind turbine black reduces the amount of dead birds by 72 per cent
Scientists regularly scoured the bottom of the turbines with specially trained sniffer dogs to identify any bird carcasses.
This was done for seven and a half years before the blades were painted and three and a half years after treatment.
For the eight turbines included in the research – four painted and four left bare – a total of 1,275 searches were conducted between 2006 and 2016.
A total of 82 carcasses were found and statistical analysis revealed the birds which benefit the most from the pained blades are raptors and large soaring birds.
This includes eagles and vultures, who have been high-profile casualties of wind turbines. No white-tailed eagle carcasses were recorded after painting the blades.
Kestrels, snipe and golden plovers also benefited from the experiment.
Six white-tailed eagles, which have an impressive 8-ft wingspan, had been killed by the turbines before they were painted, but none were recorded after the treatment.
Estimates from a 2014 study by the London School of Economics predicts there could be up to 106,000 bird deaths a year as a result of UK wind turbines.
It also found that while the number of dead birds dropped at painted turbines, it did not trigger a spike in the amount of casualties at neighboring sites.
Researchers suggest the reason painting a single blade works is due to a phenomenon called ‘motion smear’.
This means that, although birds often have exceptional eyesight, the rotating blades appear invisible.
Birds have extremely high-resolution eyesight in their peripheral field of vision, and the front-facing eyesight is not as good.
The study said: ‘Within an assumed open airspace, birds may therefore not always perceive obstructions ahead thereby enhancing the risk of collision.’
The findings are published in Ecology and Evolution.
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As wind energy projects increase in number and size they are approved to be sited in or near protected or last known habitats. The three turbine blades are longer with larger sweep paths making it near impossible for birds to avoid this death zone with tips spinning at 300km/hr.
To enable birds to avoid deadly collisions a far greater distance between nesting sites, flight paths and wind turbines than currently implemented is required. Current mitigation methods include bird compensation measures.
Read about the Smola wind farm impacts on birds here https://meanderingwild.com/smola-wind-farm-sea-eagle-norway/
Understanding bird collisions paper-2014: Understanding Bird Collisions At Wind Farms- 2014
~ DeFrock ~
DeFrock 
Wait, what ?? All the turbines shown have 3 blades not 4 !! What are we missing here ??……..lol
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