Safer flights - apps for reporting incidents with power lines

The LIFE PowerLines4Birds project encourages anyone to report birdlife incidents involving power lines.

It is estimated that there are more than 65 million km of medium-high voltage power lines around the world. Several studies have clearly shown that these linear infrastructures pose a risk of collision and electrocution to birds, including endangered species. The LIFE PowerLines4Birds project aims to reduce the impact of power lines through electrocution and collision for 7 priority bird species that are highly vulnerable to this threat, through the implementation of mitigation measures such as the correction of power lines, awareness campaigns and the updating of technological tools.

With this in mind, the PowerLines4Birds project has achieved yet another goal by making available two mobile applications for reporting bird mortality on power lines. In Portugal, E-REDES - the project's partner - has added a module to its digital counter to make it easier to report these incidents involving birdlife. This way, specialized technicians, environmental authorities and citizens can identify incidents of dead or injured birds on electricity infrastructures in Portugal. The app is available and can be downloaded here.

Alongside this initiative, SEO - the project's partner in Spain - has updated its mobile application dedicated to reporting incidents involving birds in linear infrastructures. Given that there are several electricity distribution operators in Spain, it is common to find power lines from different operators in the same province, or even in the same municipality. In addition, the mapping of each operator's power lines is not available, which makes it difficult to plan continuous and standardized monitoring. The “Infrastructure Mortality” application is easy to use and intuitive, and allows anyone to contribute to improving data collection on bird mortality, facilitating the assessment of priorities for action in the areas most at risk. The application can be downloaded here.

Citizen science is a form of scientific research in which non-experts actively participate in the collection, analysis and/or interpretation of data, in this case records of bird incidents with power lines. This collaboration between scientists and the community promotes greater participation, education and access to scientific knowledge. You can start contributing now with more eyes and boots in the field and report these incidents so that we can identify and act now and in the future.

Stay tuned to our social networks and website where we will soon be announcing workshops dedicated to exploring the issues addressed by the project and training participants in the use of the mobile application.

The LIFE PowerLines4Birds project is co-financed by the European Union's LIFE Program. Partners in this project are the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA), QUERCUS - National Association for Nature Conservation, the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/Birdlife) and E-Redes.