Differential mortality of birds killed at wind farms in Northern Portugal.

• Published in: Bird Study
• Main Authors: Morinha, Francisco, Travassos, Paulo, Seixas, Fernanda, Martins, Ana, Bastos, Rita, Carvalho, Diogo, Magalhães, Paula, Santos, Mário, Bastos, Estela, Cabral, João Alexandre
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2014
• Subjects: Differential mortality; Northern Portugal; Birds killed; Wind farms; Alauda arvensis
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/4300; https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2014.883357

The Skylark Alauda arvensis had the highest overall mortality in ten Northern Portuguese wind farms surveyed between 2006 and 2011. Analysis from the integration of conventional and molecular techniques suggest a sex and age biased mortality affecting mainly adult males (90.9%), which may be related to their characteristic breeding male song-flights making them highly vulnerable to collision with wind turbines. The results highlight the added value of more complete population impact assessments that go beyond simple carcass identification at wind farms.