About Birds of Prey:

• Birds of prey, also known as raptors, include species of birds that primarily hunt and feed on vertebrates that are large relative to the hunter. Millions of birds live all over the world. Ducks, pigeons, pheasants, passerines (perching little birds!) but none are termed birds of prey.
• Generally, it is agreed that there are three defining factors that make a bird of prey, it eats meat, sometimes hunted, sometimes carrion, it has a superb vision with a wide binocular range, and it catches its food with its feet.
• There are the diurnal birds of prey – that is birds of prey that fly and hunt during the daylight hours, hawks, buzzards, eagles, and falcons to name but a few examples. There are also the nocturnal birds of prey (owls) – those that fly and hunt at night and these are the owls.
• The victorian scientific name for birds of prey is RAPTOR. This name comes from the Latin word meaning a Plunderer – someone who seizes and carries away. That is pretty much what birds of prey or raptors‘ do – they seize, or grab their prey and carry it away.
• To do this raptors have very strong legs and powerful feet with very sharp curved talons. They also have strong hooked beaks. Parrots have even stronger hooked beaks but rarely use them for tearing meat instead they are used for opening hard fruit and nuts. Although other birds have very strong feet, such as an Ostrich, none can grip like a raptor, nor generally, do they have very sharp claws.
• There are many birds that, like raptors, eat meat. Small birds, robins, thrushes and kingfishers, and larger birds such as carrion crows, magpies and ravens all eat meat, but they do not use their feet to catch their quarry – instead they use their beaks. Only raptors hunt, grasp and kill other creatures by using their powerful feet.
• Birds of prey, such as eagles, buzzards and vultures, use the same wind resources that turbines need to operate. These large soaring birds use the wind to help power their own flight, using updraughts and thermals to gain height.
• This can make them particularly vulnerable to collisions with wind turbine blades, which can travel at speeds of up to 290 kilometre/hour and either eagle don‘t see them or don‘t perceive them as a threat until it is too late.
• In South Africa, recent research found that 36 per cent of birds killed by wind turbines were birds of prey. These birds have long lifespans and produce relatively few young each year, which means that even a small increase in deaths can cause their populations to decline.
• This wind-wildlife conflict has been termed a green-green dilemma: More clean energy and healthy bird populations are both desirable environmental goals, yet with detrimental counter effects.

Impacts of wind turbines on birds of prey:

One of these impacts is that wind turbines can kill birds when they collide with the moving blades. This problem is known worldwide, and some types of bird are more vulnerable to this threat than others.