Species-specific responses of farmland birds to overhead powerlines

Displacement and attraction effects caused by transmission powerlines on bird species have been documented, but this topic remains underexplored in the scientific literature. Here, we evaluated the impact of transmission powerlines on bird species typical of open farmlands in the Mediterranean region, focusing on five areas designated to protect farmland birds in Southern Portugal. Using an impact-gradient design, we assessed how birds responded to the proximity of transmission powerlines. Breeding bird data were collected in 2021 and 2022. Our analysis revealed that, after controlling for habitat effects, overall Bird Species Richness and Grassland Bird Species Richness were not significantly influenced by the distance to powerlines. However, species-specific negative effects were observed for two farmland species: the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) and the calandra lark (Melanocorypha calandra), both showing displacement up to 1 km from the powerlines. These findings indicate no evide..., , # Species-specific responses of farmland birds to overhead powerlines

This submission contains the dataset accompanying the following publication:

Marques, A.T., Silva, J.P., Moreira, F. Species-specific responses of farmland birds to overhead powerlines.
Ecology and Evolution, 2025

Please contact the corresponding author with questions about this data or to seek potential collaborations using these data.

Ana Teresa Marques
CIBIO - University of Porto
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

The dataset (data.csv) includes:

1. ID_point: ID of the sampling point
2. Distance_powerline: Distance in meters from each sampling point to the closest transmission powerline
3. R_all: Overall species richness
4. R_grasslands: Grassland species richness (according to Table S1)
5. Tt_PA: Presence (1) / Absence (0) of the species Tetrax tetrax
6. Mc_PA: Presence (1) / Absence (0) of the species Melanocorypha calandra
7. Ec_PA: Presence (1) / Absence (0) of the ...,