Impact of a Wind Energy Projects on Bird Migration Gabel Al-Zeit - Eastern Desert, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Central department of biodiversity, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency

2 Migratory Soaring Birds Project

3 New and Renewable Energy Authority

4 Zoology, Science, Al-Azhar, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Wind farms along bird migration routes may be very hazardous. During the spring migration season in 2020,
a study on the collision of bat and bird species was carried out on the KFW 240 MW (120 WTGs) wind farm.
Direct inspections by searchers and unsystematic line transect searches with autos were used in the carcass
searches technique. To examine the collected data, the GenEst estimator was used. During a systematic
search, six bird carcasses/remains were discovered, three of which belonged to migratory soaring birds
(MSB) with the least concern status. During the unsystematic search, two MSB and one Passerine carcasses
were discovered, but no bat carcasses were found as collision victims. Furthermore, no bird or bat carcasses
were detected beneath the high voltage powerlines that run parallel to the wind farm. Carcass persistence
trials revealed that MSB lasted 23.92 days while little passerines lasted 3 days. The detection probability for
all decay types was 87.2, 93.3 % for MSB, and 41.9 % for tiny Passerines. Moreover, the final fatality
estimation for the plant and its structures was 0.084 MSB fatality/ turbine/ season, 0.166 Passerine/ turbine/
season

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