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Power-line risk for birds

Collision and electrocution risk index for birds in Grands Causses (Lozère and Aveyron, France), per ~500 m cell, species and month, built from OpenStreetMap, Enedis, GBIF/eBird, Movebank and terrain data.

Grands Causses (Lozère and Aveyron, France) · bbox (43.95, 2.95, 44.45, 3.65) · generated on 2026-10-16 · sources: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Enedis Open Data, IGN Admin Express, GBIF/eBird, Movebank Data Repository, AWS Terrain Tiles · All regions

3,537line segments
16,380mapped pylons
11wind turbines
11species included

Grands Causses (Lozère and Aveyron, France) · bbox (43.95, 2.95, 44.45, 3.65) · generated on 2026-10-16 · sources: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Enedis Open Data, IGN Admin Express, GBIF/eBird, Movebank Data Repository, AWS Terrain Tiles · All regions

Switch on a monthly layer in the map's layer control to see the seasonality. The circles are the elements with the highest correction priority (pylons, wind turbines and line segments).

Infrastructure in the area (OSM and Enedis, French territory only)

Species

Species Common nameGBIF records Movebank GPS fixesConfidence (weight in the aggregate) Included
Gyps fulvusGriffon Vulture11,24501.0yes
Aegypius monachusCinereous Vulture72901.0yes
Neophron percnopterusEgyptian Vulture11300.23yes
Gypaetus barbatusBearded Vulture50501.0yes
Aquila chrysaetosGolden Eagle99001.0yes
Circaetus gallicusShort-toed Snake Eagle4,82601.0yes
Milvus milvusRed Kite4,48701.0yes
Milvus migransBlack Kite3,14601.0yes
Bubo buboEurasian Eagle-Owl25000.5yes
Falco peregrinusPeregrine Falcon50601.0yes
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocoraxRed-billed Chough4,82601.0yes

Seasonality of the risk (mean index over cells with infrastructure)

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Griffon Vulture91210999151914121012
Cinereous Vulture81145871314151176
Egyptian Vulture001711917132000
Bearded Vulture98345510119754
Golden Eagle9131066467611148
Short-toed Snake Eagle0012111110142218100
Red Kite51213866810131499
Black Kite012117131318134100
Eurasian Eagle-Owl201371713337813
Peregrine Falcon13181361055610121510
Red-billed Chough10119888101211141111
TOTAL121615121412192017151311

Top 50 elements to prioritise

# TypeMechanism Risk max.Mean Peak monthSpecies CategoryOperator Source
1power lineline collision464229AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
2power lineline collision425191AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
3power lineline collision425191AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
4power lineline collision425191AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
5power lineline collision421245AugBearded Vulture, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
6power lineline collision421245AugBearded Vulture, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
7power lineline collision421245AugBearded Vulture, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
8power lineline collision421245AugBearded Vulture, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
9pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
10pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
11pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
12pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093884811
13pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093884817
14pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093884814
15pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
16pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912873
17pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912868
18pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912869
19pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912871
20pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912872
21pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093912865
22pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
23pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
24pylonelectrocution408194AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14093884805
25power lineline collision406180AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
26pylonelectrocution391261SepCinereous Vulture, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Griffon Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis14096178826
27power lineline collision387169AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
28power lineline collision380179AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
29pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612057
30pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612054
31pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612071
32pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612050
33pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612044
34pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612045
35pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612058
36pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
37pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612040
38pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612038
39pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612048
40pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612062
41pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612041
42pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612063
43pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612061
44pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612047
45pylonelectrocution353185AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution Enedis14095612065
46pylonelectrocution313196AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis13135760707
47pylonelectrocution313196AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis13135760706
48pylonelectrocution313196AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
49pylonelectrocution313196AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
50pylonelectrocution313196AugCinereous Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Griffon Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset

Full ranking in ranking_elements.csv and ranking_elements.geojson; monthly rasters in risk_total.tif.

How it is computed

The French regions use the same model as the Spanish ones; what changes is where the infrastructure comes from, the voltage threshold and the conservation status.

  1. Distribution network: Enedis. Enedis, which runs about 95% of mainland France's distribution network, publishes every overhead medium-voltage (HTA) line (réseau HTA, Licence Ouverte 2.0) and the position of its poles, HTA or low voltage (poteaux HTA et BT, ODbL). They are downloaded for the region's bounding box. The poles file does not say which network each pole belongs to: a pole within 10 m of an overhead HTA line is counted as an HTA pole. The file is incomplete: it holds about half the poles one would expect on the HTA lines, so the pylons mapped in OSM fill the gaps.
  2. Transmission lines and wind turbines: OpenStreetMap. RTE's lines and pylons (63 kV and above) and the wind turbines come from OpenStreetMap (Overpass), as in Spain. Lines up to 50 kV are distribution (electrocution and collision); above that, transmission (collision only). In Spain the threshold is 66 kV (Royal Decree 1432/2008); in France the HTA network ends at 50 kV and 63 kV is already RTE's.
  3. Merging both sources. An OSM distribution line that runs within 25 m of Enedis HTA for at least 50% of its length is the same line and is dropped; the others stay (local distributors such as SICAE or régies, which publish no data). An OSM pylon within 15 m of an Enedis pole is the same pylon: the Enedis pole takes its OSM tags (material, insulators, cross-arm), which set its hazard factor, and the OSM copy is dropped. OSM pylons with no Enedis twin are kept (they are the poles missing from the Enedis file), except those tagged below 1 kV (low voltage). Where a cell has fewer mapped pylons than its line length implies, the model estimates the rest, as in Spain, so nothing is counted twice.
  4. French territory only. Every element outside the French departments that cross the region (IGN Admin Express) is clipped away: in the Pyrenees the bounding box takes in part of Spain, where there is no Enedis data and the count would be lower for that reason alone. The birds are counted over the whole box, since they fly across the border.
  5. Presence, terrain, index and ranking as in Spain: GBIF/eBird records corrected for sampling effort (density of the species' records / density of all bird records, smoothed at σ = 1,500 m), Movebank where available, slope and ridges, then a 0-100 index per species, month and 0.005° cell. Electrocution = presence x weight x pylons; line collision = presence x weight x km of line x (1 + relief); turbine collision = presence x weight x turbines x (1 + ridge).
  6. Conservation status. Each species weighs according to the Red List of the breeding birds of mainland France (UICN France, MNHN, LPO, SEOF, ONCFS, 2016): CR 1, EN 0.9, VU 0.8, NT 0.6, LC 0.4-0.5. Common Crane and White-tailed Eagle are weighted as the wintering birds they are in these regions.
  7. Natura 2000 sites come from the European Environment Agency (SPA = ZPS, SAC = ZSC).

Parameters

Grid cell0.005°
Maximum distribution voltage50 kV
Pylons assumed where none are mapped6 per km
Pylon cap per cell20
Record smoothing (σ)1,500 m with ≥300 records in the month
GBIF recordsfrom 2010, up to 20,000 per species
Minimum records to include a species30
Full confidence500 records or 2,000 GPS fixes
Maximum GPS weight (Movebank)50%
eBird Status & Trends weight70%
Slope at which line collision doubles25°
Topographic position radius1,500 m
Scale99th percentile = 100
Enedis pole counted as HTA≤10 m from an HTA line
OSM pylon and Enedis pole are the same≤15 m apart
OSM line duplicated by Enedis≥50% of its length ≤25 m from HTA

Validation

Pending, as in Spain: there is no open dataset of birds killed by power lines in France to check the ranking against. The LPO and the national action plans keep records that are not open.

What is left out, and why

Limits