A study led by the University of East Anglia highlights the areas in Europe and North Africa where the construction of wind turbines or power lines is likely to increase the risk of death for migrating birds.

The study used GPS location data from 65 bird tracking studies to understand where they fly more frequently at danger height – defined as 10-60 metres above ground for power lines and 15-135 metres for wind turbines. This allowed the team to identify the areas where these birds would be more sensitive to onshore wind turbine or power line development.

Resulting vulnerability maps reveal that the collision hotspots are particularly concentrated within important migration routes, along coastlines and near breeding locations. These include the Western Mediterranean coast of France, Southern Spain and the Moroccan Coast – such as around the Strait of Gibraltar – Eastern Romania, the Sinai Peninsula and the Baltic coast of Germany.

An article on the report in The Times noted that in England areas most at risk are centred on breeding colonies such as Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and coastlines on migration routes, including Cornwall and East Anglia. The team mainly tracked lesser black-backed gulls in Britain and found there was a moderate collision risk in 16% of areas where data was available. The risk was lower in Britain than in parts of Europe such as Gibraltar over which huge numbers of birds fly at turbine height on their migrations.

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