Windfarm impacts on birds' guidance

It is widely accepted that wind farms generally present three main areas of potential risk to birds:

• displacement through indirect loss of habitat if birds avoid the wind farm and its surrounding area due to turbine operation and maintenance or visitor disturbance. Displacement can include barrier effects in which birds are deterred from using their normal routes to feeding or roosting grounds;
• death through collision or interaction with turbine blades;
• direct habitat loss through construction of wind farm infrastructure.

An assessment of a potential wind farm's effect on the bird interest of a site should thoroughly consider each of these three potential risks for each bird species which uses the site.

The guidance outlined below is intended as an aid in the assessment of the potential impacts that a windfarm development, pre and post construction, may have on birds.  

• Assessing collision risks
• Survey methods for assessing the impacts of onshore windfarms  (2005 - revised 2010)
• Significance of impacts on birds within or affecting designated areas
• Significance of impacts on birds outwith designated areas   (2006)
• A Review of Disturbance Distances in Selected Bird Species  (2007)
• Monitoring the impact of onshore wind farms on birds in Scotland  (January 2009)
• Guidance on methods for monitoring bird populations at onshore windfarms    (2009 )
• Guidance on Environmental Statements and Annexes of Environmentally Sensitive Bird Information  (2009)
• RSPB Bird Sensitivity map and report 
• Post-construction management of wind farms on clear-felled forestry sites: reducing the collision risk for hen harrier, merlin and short-eared owl from Special Protection Areas  (2010)

We are often asked about how to deal with construction and breeding birds. We have published a short note outlining the law and what it means for development during the bird breeding season. We provide a short summary below: All wild birds in the UK are legally protected against damage or destruction to the nest of any wild bird when it is being built or is in use. Some birds are also protected against disturbance when building or using its nest. (The law for wild birds) For legal compliance, it would be necessary to deter birds from breeding on site before construction commences. However, it can never be guaranteed that any deterrence has been 100% successful. Therefore SNH advise against construction taking place during the bird breeding season, unless all other alternatives have been reasonably and justifiably discounted. Further information on the law and how to assess the potential impacts of construction, etc