Golden Eagles – Eastern North America

Interactions with renewable energy

This study examined the intersection between migrating Golden Eagles and wind turbines in three regions of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania. During migration, Golden Eagles and other birds concentrate movements along the ridges of the region. These same ridges are where wind energy development occurs. To better understand the potential consequences to Golden Eagles from wind energy, we created maps showing where eagles were likely to fly at low altitudes during spring migration and where wind energy was likely to be developed. We then overlaid these maps to show where eagles may be most at risk from wind energy, where we considered risk to be both direct (i.e., risk of mortality or injury from collision) and indirect (e.g., risk of habitat loss, avoidance, etc. from habitat modification)