Flight behavior of breeding piping plovers: Implications for risk of collision with wind turbines

Using flight data, we predicted that the total number of piping plovers killed per breeding season (adjusted for 98 percent avoidance) could range among study sites from 0.01 to 0.29 for a small-scale residential turbine, 0.03 to 0.99 for a medium-sized turbine, and 0.06 to 2.27 with a large, utility-style turbine. Female piping plovers with a nest spent 63.7% +/- 4.5% of the time out of detection range at night and 31.5% +/- 6.2% of the time out of range during the day (MRBP, Test statistic = -3.261, P = 0.011).