Energy company set to launch 500 bird rest platforms in Istanbul

Bedaş, which offers power distribution services to over 4.7 million subscribers in the European side of Istanbul, has prepared some 500 functional bird rest platforms in a bid to protect birds and minimize power cuts resulting from bird collisions during their migration seasons. 

Some 25 percent of power breakdowns in Istanbul's European side in autumn and 10 percent in spring are due to bird collisions in August and September, according to representatives from Bedaş. 

In a bid to protect these birds and also prevent power cuts, the company launched bird rest equipment at 500 points with a 750,000-Turkish-Lira ($250,000) investment, they noted.

 "It is now the time to transform 500 transmission towers into 'bird rest facilities' through a special insulation technique," said Bedaş General Manager Mehmet İslamoğlu. 

The investment volume is planned to be at about 250,000 liras ($85,000). 

There are over 70 million kilometers of power lines on the planet, and tens of millions of birds die each year in collisions while hundreds of thousands of others are electrocuted, according to studies. 

Millions of birds pass over Istanbul in the spring and autumn months; some 400,000 of which are storks and 200,000 are raptors, according to experts. 

Saying that bird nests create a huge burden for transmission towers, as for example a stork nest can weigh between 400 kg and 2 tons, ornithologist Arzu Gürsoy Ergen noted: "Istanbul hosts a total of 352 different species, according to studies. While birds use a narrow air corridor to migrate in spring and move fast to reach their breeding locations as soon as possible, they move slowly during their autumn flows."
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