Bird kill can be reduced by changing color of wind turbines

[Chuck]

White is almost invisible to insects, but they definitely notice purple.

Matt Walker - BBC - Oct 15, 2010

....purple turbine majesties, above the fruited plain... --Ed.

A study has revealed that a wind turbine's colour affects how many insects it attracts, shedding more light on why the turbines occasionally kill bats and birds.

Scientists say that turbines, most commonly painted white or grey, draw in insects. These then lure bats and birds - as they pursue their prey - into the path of the turbine blades.

Support for the idea comes from another study showing that bats are most often killed by turbines at night and in summer, when insects are most abundant.... [Read More]

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If the color and the kills don't affect performance then the let some volunteers color them. Otherwise just leave them alone. As a species we eagerly slaughters billions of animals each year. The kills are not significant enough to warrant a lot of effort to stop them.

[The Fridge]

I saw some data out there on wind turbine kills and it was like 8th on the list of man-made causes of bird kills.
Among other things, it was less than window strikes, and house cats.

I just went to a 6-day workshop in which we built a 12 foot 1.5kW turbine.
I'm on the left, along with my car!

[xcel]

Hi Joel:

That must have been a really cool workshop? What was it and what do your shirts say?

Wayne

[JusBringIt]

Bright colors (especially purple) generally steer insects and animals away as it's a color that depicts a poison/danger.

Sounds like that was a fun project Joel. I particularly like the choice of materials!

[worthywads]

I think big strides have been made into how to avoid killing birds with wind farms, but there certainly were so bad results in some installations, Diablo Mountain is reportedly pretty bad because of location.

Having said that, the windows and cats are killing small common birds without impact to species.

Wind farms that do kill on the other hand are killing eagles, hawks, owls, and other large raptors, you know the kind we get all emotional about.

Any effort to reduce deaths seems like a good thing, especially if choice of paint is effective.

[phoebeisis]

Cats and birds have co existed for a long time.
I know "bird people" have strong feeling about cats, but cats aren't all bad.

Cats certainly helped protect the agricultural surpluses that all advanced civilizations are based on.I'm guessing that is why the Egyptians were so fond of them- "will work for food". They will hunt and kill rodents-and birds- hungry or not.

It would be great if the paint worked. Usually things aren't that simple. We'll see.

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I would hope you wouldn't have to paint the whole blades.

Perhaps a bit of fluorescent paint with "Screw you NIMBYs" would be enough to keep the birds away.