Abstract Accurate quantification of flight speeds is a prerequisite to accurately predict the numbers of collision victims of proposed wind farms using collision rate models that are a vital part of Environmental Impact Assessments. We used GPS-loggers on Sandwich Terns to collect novel data on instantaneous flight speeds during foraging trips, separated for different behavioural stages, and applied these estimates in a widely used collision rate model. Average flight speed during a foraging trip corrected for individual variation and flight type was 36.9 ± 12.3 SD km h −1 and flight speed was highest during inbound commuting (44.4 ± 12.0 km h −1 ) and lowest during foraging (29.9 ± 10.7 km h −1 ). Our results show significant differences in flight speeds of Sandwich Terns between behaviour stages during foraging trips, which resulted in divergent estimates of collision victims due to wind turbines depending on the function of the area in which wind farms are proposed. Since these conclusions are likely to hold for many other bird species, we conclude that behaviour of birds in a proposed wind farm is a factor to take into account when modelling collision rates as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment.

中文翻译：

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三明治燕鸥的行为相关飞行速度及其对风电场碰撞率建模和影响评估的影响

摘要 飞行速度的准确量化是使用碰撞率模型准确预测拟建风电场碰撞受害者数量的先决条件，碰撞率模型是环境影响评估的重要组成部分。我们在 Sandwich Terns 上使用 GPS 记录器收集觅食旅行期间瞬时飞行速度的新数据，针对不同的行为阶段进行分离，并将这些估计应用于广泛使用的碰撞率模型。针对个体差异和飞行类型校正的觅食旅行期间的平均飞行速度为 36.9 ± 12.3 SD km h -1，入境通勤期间飞行速度最高 (44.4 ± 12.0 km h -1 )，觅食期间最低 (29.9 ± 10.7 km h -1 )。我们的结果表明，在觅食过程中，三明治燕鸥在不同行为阶段的飞行速度存在显着差异，这导致了对风力涡轮机碰撞受害者的不同估计，具体取决于拟建风力发电场的区域的功能。由于这些结论可能适用于许多其他鸟类，因此我们得出结论，在模拟碰撞率作为环境影响评估的一部分时，拟建风电场中鸟类的行为是一个需要考虑的因素。