Where does the Kirtland’s warbler live?

What is the Migratory Bird Center doing for Kirtland’s warblers?

Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center scientists have been working to better understand and manage Kirtland’s warblers since 2006. Kirtland’s warblers are one of North America’s rarest and most range-restricted songbirds, breeding almost exclusively in northern Michigan and wintering primarily in the Bahamas.

Are Kirtland’s warblers endangered?

Like many other threatened and endangered species, Kirtland’s warblers are considered conservation reliant — meaning their continued survival depends on ongoing habitat management and cowbird monitoring. Nonetheless, Kirtland’s warblers represent a success story for the Endangered Species Act, scientists and government agencies.

What happens to Kirtland’s warblers as they age?

As a forest tract ages beyond the point where Kirtland’s Warblers will use it, the last residents will be unmated males. The Kirtland’s Warbler is named after Jared P. Kirtland, the father-in-law of Charles Pease, on whose farm near Cleveland, Ohio, the first specimen was collected.

Do wind farms affect bird populations?

However, the rapid expansion of wind farms has raised concerns about the impact of wind turbines on wildlife. Research in that area has been limited and has yielded conflicting results. A new study, published in Energy Science, provides comprehensive data on how turbines affect bird populations.

Does wind turbine curtailment reduce bird fatalities?

We also performed BACI experiments during a 3-year study of curtailment and operational effects on bird fatalities among wind turbines of varying operational status (study 2). In study 1, wind turbine curtailment significantly reduced near-misses and rotor-disrupted flights of bats, and it significantly reduced fatalities of bats but not of birds.

What factors should you consider when designing bird-friendly wind turbine design?

This should consider flight activity, bird size and speed, and turbine size and speed. Next, you should apply an avoidance factor to reflect how, in practice, birds often manage to avoid a turbine blade. They may change their route, time their flight through the rotor or take emergency avoidance action.

Do wind farms harm wildlife?

A second study found red grouse, snipe and curlew densities all declined on wind farms during construction. There were no consistent post-construction population declines, suggesting, for some species, wind farm construction could have greater impacts than wind farm operation.

Does wind turbine curtailment reduce near-misses and rotor-disruption of bats?

In study 1, wind turbine curtailment significantly reduced near-misses and rotor-disrupted flights of bats, and it significantly reduced fatalities of bats but not of birds.

Do long search intervals under-estimate bird and bat fatalities caused by wind turbines?

Long search intervals under-estimate bird and bat fatalities caused by wind turbines. Wildlife Society Bulletin 41: 224 – 230 . Smallwood, K. S., D. A. Bell, S. A. Snyder, and J. E. DiDonato. 2010. Novel scavenger removal trials increase estimates of wind turbine-caused avian fatality rates. Journal of Wildlife Management 74: 1089 – 1097 .

How much does it cost to curtail wind turbines for birds?

We propose to curtail the wind turbines during high-risk periods for bird species. We find the lowest cost strategy for the curtailing operation. In an example, the cost per bird averages $170.

What are wind farms and how do they work?

Wind farms are often built on land that has already been impacted by land clearing and they coexist easily with other land uses (e.g. grazing, crops). They have a smaller footprint than other forms of energy generation such as coal and gas plants.

What are the different types of wind farms?

Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore. Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in China, India, and the United States. For example, the largest wind farm in the world, Gansu Wind Farm in China had a capacity of over 6,000 MW by 2012, with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020.

What happens when a bird gets close to a wind turbine?

If a bird comes within two miles of a turbine, an employee in the tower figures out which company owns the unit in question and calls the operator to recommend a “curtailment,” or temporary shutdown, until the coast is clear. So far, the system is working. Depending on the season, there may be a couple curtailments a week.

What is wind turbine design and Technology?

Wind turbine design and technology has been developed over several decades. The main driving factor for wind energy is the cost of energy, which is the motivation for more efficient and larger turbines.

How do wind turbines affect the environment?

Turbines might cause noise and aesthetic pollution. Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to conventional power plants, concern exists over the noise produced by the turbine blades and visual impacts to the landscape. Turbine blades could damage local wildlife.

Is technology making wind energy safer for birds?

But the condor-detection system is just one of a host of technologies being developed and tested at government labs, universities, and tech companies across the country that aim to make wind energy safer for birds. For two decades, the industry’s threat to birds has been at the center of a highly politicized debate.

Do wind turbines pose a threat to birds and bats?

Beyond new paint and scary lights, tweaking the design of wind turbines could greatly reduce the risk they pose to birds and bats. Engineers have come up with a wide array of wildlife-friendly designs in recent years, ranging from slight modifications to overhauls that barely resemble a traditional wind turbine.

How much does a wind turbine cost?

For commercial wind turbines, the answer is millions of dollars per turbine. Wind turbines cost a lot, and as such the investment is to be recouped over a long period of time. Turbines produce significant electricity and sell it back to local power utilities where it flows to the power grid, used by homes and businesses.

How many bats are killed by wind energy?

In the United States, for example, wind energy generation in 2012 was estimated to have killed 600,000 (Hayes 2013) to 888,000 bats (Smallwood 2013 ), 214,000 to 368,000 small birds (Erickson et al. 2014 ), and 234,000 (Loss et al. 2013) to 573,000 (Smallwood 2013) birds of all sizes.

Do operational curtailment strategies reduce turbine-caused bird fatalities?

An operational curtailment strategy might not reduce turbine-caused fatalities for all bird species.

Do small wind turbines harm wildlife?

Although previous studies of bat collisions predominantly focused on large wind turbines, the installation of small wind turbines (SWTs, typically < 15 kW power, < 30 m hub height) has increased, particularly in the private sector, but their effects on wildlife is thus far unknown [ 14 ].

How can we reduce bird and bat fatalities caused by wind energy?

Learn more. Bird and bat fatalities increase with wind energy expansion and the only effective fatality-reduction measure has been operational curtailment, which has been documented for bats but not for birds.

What is a cluster of wind turbines?

wind farm A wind farm (often also called a wind park) is a cluster of wind turbines that acts and is connected to the power system as a single electricity producing power station. Generally it is expected that a wind farm consists of more than three wind turbines.

What is a wind turbine?

Wind turbines are machines that are located in areas where wind energy is available in abundance. Wind turbines have blades that rotate like fan to create electricity. Wind farms are those vast places on which multiple wind turbines are installed in order to harness the wind power for producing electricity.