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- October 13, 202618°
- BIST10012,151-0.94%
- USD49.220.00%
- EUR55.21+0.28%
- GOLD4,195.00+0.10%
- INTEREST37.00%-1.00
- BITCOIN81,946-2.06%
- October 13, 202618°
Türkiye is redesigning power lines to protect migratory birds
Insulation, safe nesting platforms and monitoring efforts are being implemented on Türkiye’s electricity infrastructure along migration routes to reduce bird deaths. Different methods are being used to protect thousands of birds in projects across Thrace, Eastern Anatolia, the Black Sea, the Aegean, the Mediterranean and Southeastern Anatolia.
Located along important bird migration corridors between Europe, Asia and Africa, Türkiye serves as a passage point for numerous bird species during the spring and autumn migrations. Large-winged birds such as storks, pelicans, eagles, vultures and hawks concentrate at Belen Pass in Hatay, the Çoruh Valley, and the İstanbul and Çanakkale straits because they have difficulty crossing the seas.
Smaller bird species can cross the seas at night by flapping their wings. Power lines along migration routes pose a risk of collision and electrocution, particularly for species with large wingspans.
Different measures are being applied in different regions
Trakya Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ has insulated approximately 32.7 kilometers of conductors since 2021. The region has 1,196 specialized stork nesting platforms, while 69 storks and 31 lesser spotted eagles have been ringed; four lesser spotted eagles and two lesser kestrels have been fitted with GPS transmitters for monitoring.
No electricity-related wildlife deaths were recorded at the 46 active lesser spotted eagle nests under observation. The work was carried out together with the 1st Regional Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, Trakya University and academics.
Uludağ Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ has established more than 100 nesting platforms in areas where storks are concentrated. As part of the Safe Bird Migration Routes Project carried out with the Nature Conservation Association, biodiversity risks will be surveyed and intervention areas will be identified on the basis of scientific data.
Aras Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ has carried out line-insulation and conservation work under its Let Migratory Birds Live project, launched in 2017. As part of the work in Iğdır, 150 stork chicks were ringed and five storks were monitored with satellite transmitters. The return to the region in 2022 of a stork ringed in 2019 that migrated to Africa was one of the examples recorded through long-term monitoring.
ADM Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ and GDZ Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ have installed approximately 1,200 nests on electricity poles along migration routes. A Migratory Bird Map covering Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, İzmir and Manisa is also being prepared through academic studies.
Yeşilırmak Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ has installed approximately 200 Stork Houses in the Black Sea region and insulated about 23 kilometers of power lines along migration routes over the past two years. Dicle Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ insulated approximately two kilometers of high-risk power lines to protect the northern bald ibises in Şanlıurfa’s Birecik district and established 36 stork nesting platforms in six provinces.
Boğaziçi Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ identifies high-risk lines using field data and replaces old poles with poles featuring triangular arrangements, while also installing insulation and bird-protection devices. Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ is conducting a pilot study on sonic and ultrasonic bird-repellent systems to reduce birds’ approach to high-risk areas.
Çamlıbel, Meram and Sakarya electricity distribution companies are also implementing measures based on risks in their respective regions. These measures include changing pole geometry, using protective equipment, placing some overhead lines underground and using locally produced insulation materials.
Insulation is said to reduce bird deaths
Dr. Ergün Bacak, head of the Hunting and Wildlife Management Program in the Forestry Department of İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa’s Vocational School of Forestry, said that more than 1 million storks, nearly 1 million hawks, hundreds of thousands of European honey buzzards and approximately 50,000-60,000 lesser spotted eagles migrate through Türkiye each year. Bacak said the number of smaller birds could be measured in the millions.
Bacak said the decline of wetlands and forests, along with increasing construction, was shrinking birds’ breeding, feeding and resting areas. He said storks turned to electricity poles while seeking safe resting and nesting areas, adding that insulating even the 1- to 2-meter section around the poles could help stork chicks survive.
Bacak said bird-protection devices alone were not sufficient and that the entire power network needed to be insulated. He emphasized that environmental impact assessments prepared before infrastructure investments, as well as bird observation reports, should be based on long-term fieldwork, and that public institutions, universities, civil society organizations and companies should work together.
Measures can also reduce power outages
Associate Professor Dr. Arzu Gürsoy Ergen, a faculty member in the Biology Department at Ankara University’s Faculty of Science, said Türkiye lies along the Mediterranean-Black Sea bird migration route. Ergen said bird deaths had declined substantially on insulated poles and lines fitted with reflectors, while power outages caused by the lines had also decreased accordingly.
Ergen explained that species such as storks, lesser spotted eagles and vultures can touch two different cables or a cable and the metal body of a pole during takeoff and landing. She said insulating conductors, increasing the distance between phase wires and installing safe nesting platforms on the upper sections of poles were necessary to protect these species.
Data obtained from bird ringing, satellite transmitters and GPS tracking can be used to determine birds’ migration periods, routes and flight altitudes. By entering this data into geographic information systems, risk maps can be prepared, making it possible to direct technical teams and budgets to areas where birds are concentrated.
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