Are Micro Wind Turbines a Danger to Birds?

Do Wind Turbines Kill Birds?

Here at Missouri Wind and Solar, we are often asked if wind turbines pose a threat to birds. We have quite a few wind turbines up at our store in Seymour, MO. There are several mounted on the rooftop as well as on a tower behind our facility and we have observed zero bird deaths in the decade since we've been in operation. In that time, we haven't had any customer reports of bird strikes, either.

Mega-watt wind turbines have had some incidences of bird fatalities, but we've also heard that many birds actually nest in the turbines. In the bigger picture, there are many threats to birds in our everyday lives from house cats to windows, cars to cell phone towers. Wind turbines produce clean energy that is better for the environment, not just for us but for wildlife in general, and that's hard a hard point to argue.

In the video below, Jeff discusses the recorded instances of bird deaths and some of the major causes, none of which are micro wind turbines.

Need more proof? Here are a couple of comments from wind turbine owners:

FixedByDoc Homesteading:

After 4yrs of my wind turbine being up it has never killed a bird. and mine is setup in the woods...

Curtis Albrecht:

I have a 500W wind turbine from MW&S. It's never killed anything. I love it. If you are ready to buy, buy your supplies from MW&S. They're good people.

While we're not telling you to ban your beloved cat or get rid of your cell phones, but we are trying to stress that residential sized wind turbines do not pose more of a threat to birds than any other environmental factors.

Link to original NPR report on bird deaths and cell phone towers mentioned in Jeff's video can be found here.