Electrocuted Birds

Responding to concerns that a number of dead birds (Predator birds such as a dead golden eagle, and a dead prairie falcon)  .....

Raptors Roosting And Nesting
On Electrical Infrastructure

..... were being found under power lines in the USA, despite the fact that the poles had been retrofitted to prevent electrocution, by Eve Thomason, then a wildlife biologist for a local power utility company in Idaho, USA. Note: Large birds like raptors can't sit on the power lines, so are attracted to the the power poles and infrastructure

Biologists at Boise State University, Idaho, found that they had not died of electrocution (which in any case would have been a first, as birds have been landing on power lines for nearly a century with no harm elsewhere in the world).

But in fact, along approximately 120 miles of power lines across four Western states, they discovered that the majority of them .... more than 65% ... were actually killed by guns, not electrocution, probably by local hunters (and all illegally). Of the rest, only about 17% of the birds were actually electrocuted (old uninsulated equipment) or wing tips touching exposed wires, while another 17% were killed by blunt trauma, such as collisions with cars or other birds, or falling from a nest.

Birds actually being electrocuted is an issue in some parts of the US such as Colorado where the flaming carcasses of electrocuted birds have ignited at least three wildfires in one two month period alone. The electrical infrastructure can be very attractive to birds, for roosting and building nests, in the face of a lack of suitable trees, and can then pose a collision or electrocution hazard to the birds.