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You are here: Home / Resources / General Resources Holdings / Collision Course? Researchers Tag Golden Eagles with Satellite Telemetry Devices, Track Migration To Assess Risks of Wind Energy Development in Pennsylvania

Collision Course? Researchers Tag Golden Eagles with Satellite Telemetry Devices, Track Migration To Assess Risks of Wind Energy Development in Pennsylvania

Twice yearly, above the Appalachian Mountains in central and western Pennsylvania, a rarely witnessed winged migration takes place. Hundreds of eastern golden eagles – majestic raptors with wingspans that can exceed seven feet -- traverse the state to their winter and summer territories, passing above the mountain ridges through what preliminary research shows to be an unchanging 30-60 mile wide corridor of air space. The eagles’ flight path overlaps with land areas that hold significant potential for wind power development in Pennsylvania, setting these majestic birds on a potential collision course with fast-moving turbine blades. In the hope of avoiding such a scenario, a team of researchers at the National Aviary and Powdermill Avian Research Center, the biological research station of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, has come together to track and map the birds’ movements.

Credits: The National Aviary

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Filed under: Renewable Energy