Long-term management practices successfully reduce bird-related electrical faults in a transmission grid increasingly used by white storks for nesting.

Bird nests on transmission lines can cause electrical faults which reduce service reliability. To address this problem, since the mid-90s, the Portuguese Transmission System Operator (TSO) has undertaken management actions to discourage white storks Ciconia ciconia from nesting in hazardous locations of the pylons. Here, we compiled and analyzed an 18-year series of data on electrical faults, TSO management actions to tackle these, and stork nests on transmission pylons in Portugal to: (a) determine the relative importance of bird-related faults over the total number of faults; (b) describe variations in bird-related faults across time (season of the year and time of the day); (c) describe spatial variations in bird-related faults and their association with the occurrence of white stork nests on pylons; and (d) analyze the trends, over the years, of the number of white stork nests on pylons, the TSO management actions and their effectiveness in reducing bird-related fault rates.

Response of vertebrate scavengers to power line and road rights-of-way and its implications for bird fatality estimates.

Linear infrastructures, such as power lines and roads, are an important source of bird mortality. However, little is known on the potential effect of these infrastructures on local scavenger guilds, their foraging activity and the resulting bird carcass removal patterns. This is an important source of bias in studies aiming to quantify bird fatalities due to linear infrastructures.

Re-assessing the effectiveness of wire-marking to mitigate bird collisions with power lines: A meta-analysis and guidelines for field studies.

The expansion of overhead power lines worldwide challenges companies of energy transmission and distribution, regulators and environmental consultants, among other stakeholders, to effectively mitigate their negative impacts on wildlife. Wire-marking is currently the most widespread and recommended measure to reduce bird collisions with these infrastructures. Nevertheless, and despite its importance for a bird-friendly development of energy projects, there is still much uncertainty about what explains wire-marking effectiveness.

Impact of culvert flooding on carnivore crossings.

Along many roads worldwide, drainage culverts are the only structures wildlife can safely use to cross. However, culverts inundate and can become unavailable to terrestrial fauna during rainy periods. We conducted a field study over wet and dry seasons in southern Portugal to assess the effect of culvert flooding on crossings by medium-sized carnivores.