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Power-line risk for birds

Collision and electrocution risk index for birds in Western Pyrenees (Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées, France), per ~500 m cell, species and month, built from OpenStreetMap, Enedis, GBIF/eBird, Movebank and terrain data.

Western Pyrenees (Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées, France) · bbox (42.75, -1.2, 43.25, 0.4) · generated on 2026-10-16 · sources: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Enedis Open Data, IGN Admin Express, GBIF/eBird, Movebank Data Repository, AWS Terrain Tiles · All regions

6,854line segments
19,132mapped pylons
0wind turbines
12species included

Western Pyrenees (Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées, France) · bbox (42.75, -1.2, 43.25, 0.4) · 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
Gypaetus barbatusBearded Vulture6,92201.0yes
Gyps fulvusGriffon Vulture14,75101.0yes
Neophron percnopterusEgyptian Vulture3,70901.0yes
Aquila chrysaetosGolden Eagle4,43701.0yes
Milvus milvusRed Kite11,71101.0yes
Milvus migransBlack Kite6,56901.0yes
Circaetus gallicusShort-toed Snake Eagle3,66001.0yes
Pernis apivorusEuropean Honey Buzzard2,09801.0yes
Grus grusCommon Crane1,39501.0yes
Ciconia nigraBlack Stork32600.65yes
Falco peregrinusPeregrine Falcon1,71201.0yes
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocoraxRed-billed Chough7,52701.0yes

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

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Bearded Vulture465433434435
Griffon Vulture8986761113111089
Egyptian Vulture005755672000
Golden Eagle443222223333
Red Kite1414107779912161312
Black Kite132018191722133100
Short-toed Snake Eagle0078448108200
European Honey Buzzard00006582314000
Common Crane23200000012153
Black Stork011831121319711
Peregrine Falcon478653344445
Red-billed Chough466444444665
TOTAL91213111091315131299

Top 50 elements to prioritise

# TypeMechanism Risk max.Mean Peak monthSpecies CategoryOperator Source
1power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
2power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215146
3power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215147
4power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215149
5power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
6power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215132
7power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215133
8power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215140
9power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215134
10power lineline collision488289SepBlack Stork, Peregrine Falcon, Egyptian Vulturetransmission 63 kVRTE728215148
11pylonelectrocution483296JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
12pylonelectrocution483296JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
13pylonelectrocution483296JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184174310
14pylonelectrocution483296JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150560
15pylonelectrocution483296JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184174309
16pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
17pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
18pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
19pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis8162596971
20pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis8162596977
21pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis8162597000
22pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
23pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
24pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
25pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis8162596970
26pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
27pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
28pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution 20 kVEnedis8162596968
29pylonelectrocution465318MarEgyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Bearded Vulturedistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
30power lineline collision440324OctCommon Crane, Bearded Vulture, Golden Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
31pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
32pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis9398682885
33pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184174307
34pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150565
35pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150566
36pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184174306
37pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150567
38pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150558
39pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150561
40pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150559
41pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150568
42pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150554
43pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150555
44pylonelectrocution439269JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184150553
45pylonelectrocution428277JanGolden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red-billed Choughdistribution 20 kVEnedis7184174298
46pylonelectrocution395324MayEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
47pylonelectrocution395324MayEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
48pylonelectrocution395324MayEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
49pylonelectrocution395324MayEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagledistribution EnedisEnedis dataset
50pylonelectrocution395324MayEgyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Golden 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