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Power-line risk for birds

Collision and electrocution risk index for birds in La Crau (Bouches-du-Rhône, France), per ~500 m cell, species and month, built from OpenStreetMap, Enedis, GBIF/eBird, Movebank and terrain data.

La Crau (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) · bbox (43.48, 4.72, 43.72, 5.1) · generated on 2026-10-16 · sources: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Enedis Open Data, IGN Admin Express, GBIF/eBird, Movebank Data Repository, AWS Terrain Tiles · All regions

1,952line segments
5,826mapped pylons
11wind turbines
10species included

La Crau (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) · bbox (43.48, 4.72, 43.72, 5.1) · 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
Tetrax tetraxLittle Bustard7,19601.0yes
Falco naumanniLesser Kestrel4,05701.0yes
Neophron percnopterusEgyptian Vulture1,74201.0yes
Aquila fasciataBonelli’s Eagle11,37601.0yes
Circaetus gallicusShort-toed Snake Eagle3,26201.0yes
Milvus migransBlack Kite10,94101.0yes
Ciconia ciconiaWhite Stork4,99401.0yes
Bubo buboEurasian Eagle-Owl81801.0yes
Falco peregrinusPeregrine Falcon1,00901.0yes
Ardea cinereaGrey Heron5,83501.0yes

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

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Little Bustard169101318161089121210
Lesser Kestrel003610818107100
Egyptian Vulture006781214104000
Bonelli’s Eagle443445574533
Short-toed Snake Eagle0015131415282217500
Black Kite02212322253582000
White Stork7121310111223185455
Eurasian Eagle-Owl15105447499101511
Peregrine Falcon12114334242310101214
Grey Heron161711879131312161415
TOTAL171517182123322614141413

Top 50 elements to prioritise

# TypeMechanism Risk max.Mean Peak monthSpecies CategoryOperator Source
1power lineline collision299151MayLittle Bustard, Lesser Kestrel, Black Kitedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
2power lineline collision299151MayLittle Bustard, Lesser Kestrel, Black Kitedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
3power lineline collision299151MayLittle Bustard, Lesser Kestrel, Black Kitedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
4power lineline collision282142MayLittle Bustard, Lesser Kestrel, Black Kitedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
5pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
6pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
7pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
8pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
9pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
10pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
11pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
12pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
13pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
14pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
15pylonelectrocution26573JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
16pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
17pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
18pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
19pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
20pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
21pylonelectrocution25676JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
22pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
23pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
24pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
25pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
26pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
27pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
28pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
29pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
30pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
31pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
32pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
33pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
34pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
35pylonelectrocution255108AugEurasian Eagle-Owl, Bonelli’s Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
36pylonelectrocution25371JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Lesser Kestreldistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
37pylonelectrocution25371JulEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Lesser Kestreldistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
38pylonelectrocution24684JulLesser Kestrel, Black Kite, White Storkdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
39pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
40pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
41pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
42pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
43pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
44pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
45pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
46pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
47pylonelectrocution23792AugBonelli’s Eagle, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
48pylonelectrocution235105AugEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
49pylonelectrocution235105AugEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
50pylonelectrocution235105AugEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Short-toed Snake Eagledistribution 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