Claim: Trump has repeatedly said windmills are killing droves of birds. "You want to see a bird cemetery, walk under a windmill sometime," he said in a video that was shared on Xand has been viewed close to a million times.

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DW Fact check: Misleading Yes, birds have been killed by windmills— what Trump fails to mention, though, is that wind turbines are a relatively small factor when it comes to bird mortality. According to an overview of median estimates of annual bird deaths by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the main culprits in the US are cats (2.4 billion), collisions with glass buildings (about 600 million) and collisions with vehicles (about 215 million). Collisions with land-based wind turbines are toward the bottom of the list with about 234,000 deaths a year, well after collisions with electrical lines, communication towers or poison. Even though wind turbines account only for a fraction of the total, there are several pilot projects underway to cut that number down. Researchers from Oregon State University observed a massive decline in bird collisions when one blade was painted black, installing shapes that resemble eyesor using AI-based anti-collision systems.

Reviewed by Deutsche Welle ↗ · June 7, 2025