Potential effects of offshore wind energy development on birds include reducing the detrimental impacts of climate change, further physical habitat changes, and behavioral changes in birds. Seabird habitats and prey availability may change with new physical structures in the ocean and disturbance to the seafloor from offshore wind turbine and cable installation, changes to other human activities like fishing, and potential changes in oceanography. Birds may change their behavior in response to offshore wind structures and activities primarily through attraction or avoidance at various scales. Bird collisions are difficult to detect offshore, so collision risk models are generally used to estimate collision probability while direct detection methods are developed and validated. A combination of these effects, or repeated exposure to one or more effects at one offshore wind facility, or at multiple facilities, may potentially have cumulative effects on birds over space and time. For more detailed information and scientific citations, please see the full FAQ document linked below.

Research trials using remote technologies at offshore wind facilities in Europe and the U.S. indicate that bird collisions with offshore turbines are rare. Careful planning and a range of mitigation measures are designed to reduce offshore wind development’s effects on birds, including potential bird collisions. Compared with land-based wind energy facilities, observing the interactions of birds with offshore turbines and measuring collisions offshore is more challenging, so some uncertainty remains. Renewable energy generation through offshore wind is designed to reduce a myriad of known climate change-driven impacts to birds, and the number of birds killed by offshore wind energy development is a small fraction of those killed by other known threats, such as domesticated cats and glass-fronted buildings, which can kill hundreds of millions of birds in the U.S. each year. For more detailed information and scientific citations, please see the full FAQ document linked below.

Yes, offshore wind development has the potential to change bird behavior, movement patterns, and habitat use. Not all bird species appear to respond to offshore wind energy development, but the most common responses are avoidance and attraction. Avoidance can occur at multiple scales. Birds can avoid an entire wind facility (“macro-avoidance”), avoid individual turbines (“meso-avoidance”), or make last-minute maneuvers around turbine blades (“micro-avoidance”). Macro-avoidance of wind facilities can lead to displacement and functional habitat loss. Some birds may be attracted to offshore wind facilities due to increased perching, roosting, and foraging opportunities on and around offshore structures and vessels. Some birds may also be attracted to and disoriented by artificial lighting at night. While research in Europe has shown behavioral responses, with some species (e.g., loons) more likely to avoid and/or be displaced by offshore wind, and others (e.g., cormorants) more likely to be attracted to offshore wind facilities, transferability of these results to the U.S. wind context is uncertain. Variation in local species presence, wind facility layout, and geography likely influence how species respond. For more detailed information and scientific citations, please see the full FAQ document linked below.

Many millions of birds use the waters off the U.S. Atlantic coast, but not all species using or migrating over this region will be affected by offshore wind development. To date, most data on effects on birds from offshore wind energy are from European studies. Bird collisions with offshore turbines appear to be rare, but effective habitat loss has been observed when birds avoid specific areas of offshore wind development (i.e., displacement). However, impacts from collisions and displacement are difficult to measure at the population scale (see What do we know about the frequency of collisions at offshore wind facilities?). Improving our understanding of potential impacts to bird populations from offshore wind development is a focus of ongoing research globally. For more detailed information and scientific citations, please see the full FAQ document linked below.