Understanding the Impacts of Wind Farms on Birds

The BTO has been providing advice about the potential ornithological impacts of renewable energy schemes since the 1980s, with BTO scientists working to improve our understanding of the impacts of wind farms on birds in order to help minimise any negative effects. This short BTO Research Note highlights key projects that BTO scientists have been involved in which have helped to improve our knowledge of the interactions between birds and wind farms.

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Habitat selection by breeding Whinchats Saxicola rubetra at territory and landscape scales.

Demographic drivers of decline and recovery in an Afro-Palaearctic migratory bird population

Populations of many species of migratory bird are declining in Britain. However, the picture is not equally gloomy across the country. Many species are doing much better in northern Britain than they are in the south. Recent research, led by Cat Morrison at the University of East Anglia in collaboration with BTO staff, has used BTO data to understand why this difference occurs.

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LifeCycle - Issue 4, Autumn 2016

Issue 4 contains the second in our two-part series on mist-netting waders as well as a guide to monitoring Tawny Owls and articles on tracking Nightingales, how your NRS data is informing conservation policy, and more.

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Multi-state multi-stage modeling of nest-success suggests interaction between weather and land-use

A common issue that many analysts of biological data encounter is that of detectability. For a human population we can (in principle) count every individual. For wildlife though, things are trickier, and only rarely is this possible. Bird’s nests are a good example of this - we cannot find every nest. Some are well hidden, some are out of reach, and some we just miss. When we do find a nest, it is rarely right at the start of egg-laying, mostly we find them when they already have eggs or chicks in them.

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