The inaugural field season of the Shrub-Nesting Passerine Collaborative bore its first scholarly fruit on February 10, 2010, in San Diego, CA, in a presentation given at the joint annual meeting of three of North America’s largest Ornithology societies: “Effects of wind turbine proximity and other variables on the reproductive success of shrub-nesting passerines." (PDF)
An intensive nest searching and monitoring effort (from April to August 2009) at NextEra’s Wolf Ridge Wind Energy Center in Texas resulted in data set on 327 active nests for 16 bird species. Three different statistical techniques were applied to the five most 
abundant species in this data set, and in no case was there any evidence of any relationship between reproductive success and proximity to the nearest wind turbine.
While this result is suggestive of a lack of impact, it must be interpreted with caution. Lack of evidence of a wind turbine impact is not synonymous with positive proof of no impact. These results only apply to the five species studied at a single wind farm in a single season.
Nonetheless, this result (plus more definitive evidence of a lack of wind turbine impact in one species) reveals the first scientific glimpses of this wind-wildlife dynamic – with important implications for the conservation, regulatory, and wind industry communities.
The presentation was given by Kris Karsten, a postdoctoral research fellow at Texas Christian University, who collaborated with TCU colleague Amanda Hale and Pandion ornithologists Caleb Gordon and Bryan Suson to author the study.
Visit the project page for the SNP Collaborative >>
View the presentation (PDF) >>
The SNP Collaborative is a research program of the Environmental Bioindicators Foundation, Inc. and Pandion Systems, Inc. Support for this program is provided by Iberdrola Renewables, Inc., Horizon Wind Energy, LLC, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, and the Texas Christian University, University of Oxford, NextEra Energy Wind Research Initiative.