{"id":484271,"date":"2026-05-14T12:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484271\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:40:14","slug":"birds-avoid-wind-turbines-painted-like-venomous-snakes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484271\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds avoid wind turbines painted like venomous snakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wind turbines<\/a> are a net positive for a sustainable society, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have an environmental impact. Apart from their material requirements, those giant, spinning blades can be lethal to unsuspecting winged animals<\/a> like birds<\/a> and bats<\/a>. Although some reports dramatically overplay wind farms\u2019 danger to flying species, there is no denying they can unintentionally kill<\/a> anywhere from two-to-six birds and four-to-seven bats per megawatt every year. That may not seem like many fatalities, but every animal counts for an endangered species.<\/p>\n

To lower these risks, engineers are devising new ways to make wind turbines more visible and avoidable. One potential solution may involve taking a cue from some of nature\u2019s most dangerous creatures. According to a study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology<\/a>, more bats and birds will steer clear of wind turbines when their blades are painted with colors similar to animals like venomous coral snakes and poison dart frogs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A drone photograph of a wind turbine in southern Finland, digitally modified with a biologically inspired warning pattern under natural light conditions. Credit: Eric Lehtonen<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite blades, which are the most frequently used pattern around the world, turned out to be the worst option for birds,\u201d Johanna Mappes<\/a>, a University of Helsinki environmental scientist and study co-author, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThis suggests that a relatively simple visual change could reduce bird mortality in connection with wind power.\u201d<\/p>\n

To test how birds respond to various turbine designs, Mappes and her colleagues placed test subjects in front of a video screen in a controlled laboratory environment. They then played clips of wind blades with multiple color palettes spinning at different speeds. These included turbines featuring classic white blades, one blade painted black, blades with red-and-white stripes, or blades with a newly designed, biomimetic red-black-yellow pattern.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy using a touchscreen especially designed for birds, we can use games to explore their behavior and ecology by simulating real-world scenarios, without putting the birds at risk,\u201d explained University of Exeter ecologist and study co-author George Hancock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In nearly every trial, the birds were far more likely to approach white blades than any of the colored options. However, the test subjects were the most avoidant of the team\u2019s novel, biomimetic striped blades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known for a long time that birds change how they respond to objects with warning colors, but to see such a large effect was remarkable,\u201d Hancock added.<\/p>\n

There is no way to completely prevent wind turbines from ever accidentally harming or killing animals. That said, the study\u2019s authors believe a wider industry adoption of evolutionarily inspired color schemes could be an easy, cheap way to make the technology safer. They also suggest that similar approaches be developed for other human-made avian dangers like power lines and building windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the results are repeated in practical conditions in different countries and with different bird species, it could be a significant change for the entire wind power industry,\u201d said Mappes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wind turbines are a net positive for a sustainable society, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,8459,440,6129,19,17,211801,58729,133,211800,16490,41819,28758],"class_list":{"0":"post-484271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-endangered-species","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-environmental-impact","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-johanna-mappes","15":"tag-migratory-birds","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-wind-blades","18":"tag-wind-farms","19":"tag-wind-power","20":"tag-wind-turbines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116572981106619503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}