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Birders get nervous when they see landscapes covered in wind turbines.
当观鸟者看到被风力涡轮机覆盖的景观时，他们会感到紧张。
When the wind gets going, their blades can spin at well over 200km per hour.
当有风时，它们的叶片可以以每小时200公里的速度旋转。
It is easy to imagine careless birds getting chopped to bits.
很容易想象粗心的鸟儿被切成碎片的场面。
Campaigners often point to the possibility when opposing the building of new wind farms.
活动人士经常在反对建设新的风力发电场时指出这种可能性。
No one doubts that wind turbines do indeed kill at least some birds.
大家都坚信风力涡轮机确实杀死了至少一些鸟类。
But a new analysis of American data, published in Environmental Science & Technology, suggests the numbers are negligible, and have little impact on bird populations.
但发表在《环境科学与技术》上的一项对美国数据的新分析表明，这些数字可以忽略不计，对鸟类种群的影响很小。
Wind power has expanded dramatically in America over the past 20 years, from 2.6 gigawatts of installed capacity on land in 2000 to 122 gigawatts in 2020.
在过去的20年里，风力发电在美国迅猛发展，从2000年陆地装机容量2.6吉瓦增长到2020年的122吉瓦。
Many studies have analysed the effects in specific locations or on specific bird species.
许多研究分析了这对特定地点或特定鸟类的影响。
But few have looked at the effects on wildlife at the population level.
但很少有人从种群水平上研究对野生动物的影响。
Enter Erik Katovich, an economist at the University of Geneva.
日内瓦大学的经济学家埃里克·卡托维奇这样说。
Dr Katovich made use of the Christmas Bird Count, a citizen-science project run by the National Audubon Society, an American non-profit outfit.
卡托维奇博士利用了圣诞鸟统计，这是一个由国家奥杜邦协会（美国非营利组织）运营的公民科学项目。
Volunteers count birds they spot over Christmas, and the society compiles the numbers.
志愿者们在圣诞节期间统计他们发现的鸟类数量，该协会将这些数字汇总起来。
Its records stretch back over a century.
它的记录可以追溯到一个多世纪以前。
Dr Katovich assumed, reasonably, that if wind turbines harmed bird populations, then the numbers seen in the Christmas Bird Count would drop in places where new turbines had been built.
卡托维奇博士合理地假设，如果风力涡轮机损害了鸟类的数量，那么在建造了新涡轮机的地方，圣诞鸟统计中的鸟类数量就会下降。
He combined bird population and species maps with the locations and construction dates of all wind turbines in the United States, with the exceptions of Alaska and Hawaii, between 2000 and 2020.
他将2000年至2020年期间，除阿拉斯加和夏威夷外，美国所有风力涡轮机的位置和建造日期与鸟类种群和物种地图相结合。
He found that building turbines had no discernible effect on bird populations.
他发现建造涡轮机对鸟类数量没有明显的影响。
That reassuring finding held even when he looked specifically at large birds like hawks, vultures and eagles that many people believe are particularly vulnerable to being struck.
即使当他专门研究鹰、秃鹫和鹰等大型鸟类时，这一令人安心的发现也成立，许多人曾认为这些鸟类特别容易被击中。
