The Welsh Kite Trust

Red Kite Critically Injured By Wind Turbine

"The horrendous injury, in which the end portion of the wing was almost severed, is considered by the vet who examined the kite, to be wholly in keeping with being hit by a turbine blade"

On November I was observing Red Kites at a feeding station just outside Aberystwyth. I was there specifically to count the number of birds using the site and also to identify some of the tagged birds present. One of the juveniles I observed clearly, and watched at great length, was Black/White “filled heart”.

Later in the day, as I was entering the data onto a spreadsheet, the telephone rang. A young Red Kite had been handed in to a local vet with a badly injured wing. As the person read out the ring number I realised that it belonged to the very bird I was entering on to my spreadsheet at the time – a bird I had been observing just a few hours earlier!

At the time it was thought that the injuries were the result of a road traffic accident but it later transpired that the kite had in fact been recovered from the area of a neighbouring windfarm, close to a turbine.

The windfarm is obviously situated on the top of a hill with no wires or roads nearby and the horrendous injury, in which the end portion of the wing was almost severed, is considered by the vet who examined the kite, to be wholly in keeping with being hit by a turbine blade.

It is difficult to see how else this injury could have been caused given the location. Unfortunately, the injury was so severe that there was no hope of ever releasing the bird and the decision was taken to euthanase it immediately.

This incident is the first hard evidence we have that Red Kites are directly threatened by wind-turbines. This incident may or may not be an isolated case.  Several years ago the long-dead corpse of a kite was found dead under a turbine at another windfarm - in that instance it was impossible to say how the bird had died but collision was not ruled out.

  The real threat to kites and the actual level of mortality caused by the ever-increasing number of wind turbines in Wales needs to be investigated further, especially given the current unfavourable conservation status of the species in European stronghold countries (Germany, France and Spain).