Dr. Al Manville, retired biologist, US Fish and Wildlife, consultant with Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Solutions, has written a comprehensive paper, “Impacts to Birds and Bats Due to Collisions and Electrocutions from Some Tall Structures in the United States: Wires, Towers, Turbines, and Solar Arrays–State of the Art in Addressing the Problems.” The paper is included in Problematic Wildlife, edited by F.M. Angelici, published by Springer Intern’l, 2016. Here’s a brief excerpt: “Tall structures such as communication towers, power transmission lines, commercial wind turbines, solar power towers and buildings extend into the airspace, in some cases to great heights…some digital television communication towers…can have deleterious direct effects and impacts to flying wildlife, not to mention indirect effects caused by air and facility disturbance from infra-sound noise and lighting, barriers, and fragmented habitats. The overall goal for developers of tall structures and the agencies that regulate them should be to do no harm to protected wildlife species and minimize impacts to their habitats such as the U.S. Interior Department’s ‘smart from the start’ initiative (2011).”
Dr. Manville’s paper is posted for non-commercial use only, with a focus on professional/scientific development.