Comment Re:WUWT (Score 3, Insightful) 441
Targeting specific birds, how many top of the food chain birds do cats kill? I have doubts that cats or glass panes are killing as many eagles as windmills.
67 eagles have been verified as killed by wind turbines in the last 5 years (source).
That's out of a population of about 20,000 bald eagles (source) and 30,000 golden eagles (source).
So, are wind turbines a significant problem for eagles? Well, they do kill an estimated 0.13% of eagles, so they aren't completely harmless. On the other hand, the American Eagle Society's threats to eagle survival page lists the primary threats to eagles as: DDT, Lead shot poisoning, secondary poisoning, electrocution, poaching, habitat destruction, and other predators. Wind turbines are not mentioned at all.
Therefore, we can conclude that "wind turbines kill eagles" is a not a valid criticism of wind power.