Visit Wales Now

Visit Wales and see some dramatic changes to the landscape

The soaring red kite, the national bird of Wales .

Birdwatching in Wales

Birdwatchers travel to Wales to see the abundant and varied bird life. 

Of particular interest is the magnificent red kite, a symbol of Welsh resurgence. By the beginning of the twentieth century the red kite population was reduced to just a few breeding pairs that managed to survive in mid Wales. But thanks to conservation efforts the red kite population was rescued from extinction and there are now about 400 breeding pairs in mid Wales.

Today, the famous red kite is facing a new threat: wind turbines. 

On June 11th, 2010, the first dead Red Kite was reported from Alltwalis in the Brechfa Forest. A visitor to Alltwalis found this dead kite under one of the turbines:

Red kite found under a wind turbine at Alltwalis in Wales 

Red kite killed by the blades of a wind turbine in Germany

Birds and wind turbines  

A red kite killed by colliding with a turbine in Spain, where up to
a million birds a year may be dying in this way

The following is an extract from an article in the Sunday telegraph on March 14, 2010. For the full article click here. 

"A feature of these supposedly environment-friendly machines is their devastating effect on wildlife, notably on large birds of prey, such as eagles and red kites. Particularly disturbing is the extent to which the disaster has been downplayed
by professional bodies, such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain and the Audubon Society in the US, which should be at the forefront of exposing this outrage, but which have often been drawn into a conflict of interest by the large sums of money they derive from the wind industry itself."

There is considerable evidence from around world that spinning blades have killed huge numbers of birds. This seems inevitable when one considers that turbine blades weigh in the region of 1.5 tonnes and their tips can travel at speeds of over 180 mph.

Turbines have caused the deaths of four white-tailed eagles on the isolated islands of Smola six miles off the Norwegian coast where 68 turbines are now in action. Thirty other eagles have failed to return to their nesting sites within the wind farm area according to wildlife campaigners. The dead birds were found between August and December last year. Two had been sliced in half, apparently by a turbine blade. Only a single youngster is due to be raised by just one pair this summer. The population has been falling since the first twenty turbines began turning in the autumn of 2002.

A major study into bird kills, carried out in northern Spain, found that about 6,000 birds and bats were killed by turbines in one year.

In 2008, the Regional government of Valencia, Spain, ordered 2 wind farms to be shut down after they butchered 200 griffon vultures and 100 more birds (official figures, possibly still shy of reality, especially the 100 birds..). The owning company won't comply, and will appeal the decision.

To see pictures of windfarm bird kills in Spain, click here.    

The turbines at Altamount Pass in California, the largest wind-farm area in the world, have on average killed 200–300 red-tail hawks and 40–60 golden eagles each year. At other wind turbine sites in southern California, an estimated 7,000 migrating birds are killed each year.

To find our more about wind turbines and bird kills, see the articles in English on the iberica2000 website.  

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