The study was conducted across three wind farms and showed that each turbine killed an average of 28 birds per year, roughly a third of commonly-quoted research from the 1980s.

Across the Netherlands, around 50,000 birds are killed each year by the country's 1700 wind turbines, in comparison to the 2 million or so birds killed by vehicles on Dutch roads.

The study also indicated that larger turbines (those producing over 1.5MW of power) killed slightly more birds than smaller models but in comparison produced 5 to 10 times as much power, leading to smaller numbers.

"The mathematical model which was used up until now seems to predict too many collision victims for modern wind turbines in the Netherlands," the report authors said in a statement.

"In contrast to what might be expected, it seems that the number of bird victims has almost no relationship with the size of the wind turbine."

EnvironmentalManagementNews.net