Data from: An ecological vulnerability index to assess impacts of offshore wind facilities on migratory song-birds

As offshore wind (OSW) energy expands globally, migratory songbirds are at
risk of mortality from collisions with turbine blades, though the
magnitude of this threat, and which species are most vulnerable, remains
poorly understood. Ecological vulnerability indices are commonly used to
assess species’ susceptibility to harmful factors, with results used to
direct scarce research and monitoring resources to species showing
relatively high vulnerability. These indices are based on the traits that
elevate a species risk to adverse impacts (sensitivity), the overlap in
occurrence between a species and the potentially harmful agent (exposure),
and the influence of this exposure on the species’ local or global
persistence (resilience). We modified ecological vulnerability indices for
seabirds to assess vulnerability of migratory songbirds to OSW related
mortality. As a pertinent case study, we considered songbirds that fly
across the Northwest Atlantic during their autumn migration. We utilized
readily available information on each species’ migratory behavior, life
history, and conservation status to calculate an index score that could
range from 1 (lowest vulnerability) to 125 (highest vulnerability). We
found scores of 3 to 55.2 for the 101 songbird species evaluated, with New
World warblers (Parulidae) over-represented among the highest scoring
species. We found the scores to be sensitive to uncertainty in index
components, highlighting the importance of considering scoring uncertainty
when evaluating ecological vulnerability indices. Finally, we found that
for seven of the top ten highest scoring species, modest improvements in
population trends had the potential to lower the scores substantially. Our
methodology is readily applicable to other regions where OSW development
is planned and songbird migration is common, allowing research and
monitoring activities to be targeted to species most likely to be
negatively affected by OSW facility encounters.