Biodiversity hotspot and birder’s dream no more: Kaban wind...

Biodiversity hotspot and birder’s dream no more: Kaban wind power facility repelling birds

Rainforest Reserves Australia

July 4, 2024

Once a biodiversity hotspot and birder’s dream, the construction of the Kaban wind farm appears to have repelled a large number of bird species.

We’ve been going through the 2023 Annual Compliance Report for Kaban wind farm in FNQ, just published. The number of bird species surveyed on the site since 2018 has dropped markedly.

The sheer number of bird species observed in 2018 was huge: 85 species! But by 2023, 1 year after Kaban wind farm became operational, the number of species surveyed was only 39.

Alarmingly, some 50 species have not been observed via Bird and Bat surveys onsite since 2021. Windfarm construction began in June 2021; surveys done in October. This was the last time Brolgas, Red Tailed Black Cockatoos and others were observed in Bird and Bat surveys onsite.

The 1st turbine started turning in Sep 2022. Since then, these dead birds were found *incidentally* onsite: 2 Fork-tailed swifts, 1 Vulnerable White-throated Needletail, 1 Rufous Fantail, 1 Black Faced Monarch. 2 dead Endangered Spectacled Flying Foxes were found near turbines.

Incidental discoveries of carcasses are not the same as carcass surveys. In fact official Kaban wind farm carcass surveys have not yet been released. Kaban wind farm is an important example of the impact big wind farms can have in biodiverse places with rich birdlife.

Wedge-tails have been surveyed at Kaban wind farm site yearly. They fly at Rotar Sweep Area (RSA Height (80 – 255 m) and are likely to die of turbine strike. But the discovery of the dead Needletail, Rufous Fantail, Black Faced Monarch indicates unexpectedly that other birds may fly at the RSA.

The 2023 Annual Compliance Report reveals that Kaban wind farm is killing more birds and bats than anticipated. The original number of ‘high risk’ turbines was considered to be 15. Since then, the number of High Risk turbines has risen to 24 turbines.

It seems to us that overall, loss of bird species at Kaban wind farm site is at least partially due to the recent increase in human activity to construct the wind farm, the heavy vehicles, habitat destruction, then colonisation of aerial space by large turbines and maybe sound of turbines themselves.