Wind turbines in managed forests partially displace common birds

Wind turbines are increasingly being installed in forests, which can lead to land use disputes between climate mitigation efforts and nature conservation. Environmental impact assessments precede the construction of wind turbines to ensure that wind turbines are installed only in managed or degraded forests that are of potentially low value for conservation. It is unknown, nevertheless, if animals deemed of minor relevance in environmental impact assessments are affected by wind turbines in managed forests. We investigated the impact of wind turbines on common forest birds, by counting birds along an impact-gradient of wind turbines in 24 temperate forests in Hesse, Germany. During 860 point counts, we counted 2,231 birds from 45 species. Bird communities were strongly related to forest structure, season and the rotor diameter of wind turbines, but were not related to wind turbine distance. For instance, bird abundance decreased in structure-poor (-38%) and monocultural (-41%) forests w..., See material and method section in the underlying study.,