Evaluating the sensitivity of raptors to wind turbine collisions: An integrative approach based on GPS tracking

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Abstract
Wind energy development leads to an increased mortality of birds due to collisions with wind turbines, especially in raptors. To assess the sensitivity of different bird species to wind turbine collisions, predict collision risk and identify effective mitigation measures, detailed information on flight behaviour is essential, but thus far unavailable for many species. Here, we evaluated the sensitivity of breeding birds of six raptor species—Montagu's Harrier (MoH), Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard (CB), Red Kite (RK) and Short‐toed Eagle (STE)—to wind turbine collisions by integrating three aspects of flight behaviour, that is time spent in flight, proportion of flights at risk height and distance travelled from the nest location. We used GPS‐tracking data collected in 15 study areas in 6 European countries, comprising 280 individuals, 74,501 individual tracking days and 5786 h of high‐frequency flight tracks, providing accurate flight height data. The average time spent in flight ranged from 0.5 (CB) to 3.4 h day −1 (MoH) in females and from 1.0 (CB) to 7.4 h day −1 (MoH) in males. The proportion of flights at risk height (32–200 m above ground level) varied between 12.4% (MoH) and 56.4% (RK). The highest sensitivity index (time spent at risk height per year) was found in RK (1.7–7.4 times higher than in the other species). The mean 90% quantile of distance from nest ranged from 0.7 (CB) to 9.8 km (STE) in females, and from 1.0 (CB) to 5.6 km (MoH) in males. With increasing distance from nest, sensitivity (time spent at risk height per km 2 ) decreased with species‐specific slopes. Practical implication: These results indicate that flight behaviour explains substantial differences in the sensitivity to wind turbine collisions among raptor species. Our integrative approach to assess sensitivity based on flight behaviour regardless of current exposure allows to prioritise species for the selection of wind farm sites and conservation measures, and can be complemented with other aspects, for example extinction risk. Our findings on spatial sensitivity with respect to nest‐turbine distances may inform the siting of wind turbines to minimise collision risk.

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