[Angie10]

Did you know; wind turbines kill between 10,000 and 100,000 birds each year in the UK. Interestingly, painting one of the blades of a wind turbine black can reduce bird deaths by 70 per cent.

#BorrowedNotMine
Image credit: matthiasboeckel
@Pixabay

[Netherrealmer]

Beards died in airplane propellers too.

[Jem Smith]

It's cool that there's a solution as simple as painting the blades black.

Bird deaths from wind turbines get a bit more attention in the media than they really should, probably due to climate change deniers who don't like alternative energy sources. They do kill birds, but they actually cause a very small proportion of the total bird deaths. When it come to bird deaths from collisions with man made objects, the biggest problem is collisions with windows (when they don't realise the glass is there or try to attack their reflection). Other things that kill a lot of birds are domestic cats, pollution and climate change (extreme weather events, disruption to breeding patterns and migration).

https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/what-is-the-biggest-killer-of-birds-in-the-uk/

--- 23 Feb 2025, 17:34 ---

Beards died in airplane propellers too.

Yep, it's called 'bird strike'.

[Fergal]

I love seeing and hearing birds in the wild, it is sad that so many are getting killed by wind turbines and other interventions caused by humans.

wind turbines kill between 10,000 and 100,000 birds each year in the UK

That's a very broad range.

[Jem Smith]

I love seeing and hearing birds in the wild, it is sad that so many are getting killed by wind turbines and other interventions caused by humans.

wind turbines kill between 10,000 and 100,000 birds each year in the UK

That's a very broad range.

It really is! I guess it came from this article?
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-many-birds-are-killed-by-wind-turbines-in-the-uk
I wonder why it's such a big range? Maybe there is some confusion between the total number of birds killed by collisions with man made objects and those killed by wind turbines specifically.

The same article also says "That’s a lot, but it’s worth noting that approximately 55 million birds are killed in the UK each year by domestic cats."