Our actions to protect Black Storks along power lines

In 2024 and 2025, the LIFE programme funded 89 GPS tags deployed on young Black Storks. In France, this tagging project is coordinated under ringing programme no. 320 (CRBPO), in partnership with LPO France, ACETAM, ONF, Natagora, Nature Nièvre, and the Parc National de Forêts.

Since 2020, this collaborative effort has made it possible to monitor 162 young storks in France and 25 in Belgium, an unprecedented tracking effort for this discreet and vulnerable species.

Until now, juvenile mortality had only been estimated through scientific models based on ring recoveries, but rarely documented directly. Thanks to this programme, we can now identify the actual causes of more than half of all recorded deaths:

• 20% die in the nest, without being observed in the field.

• 30% die from natural causes after fledging (exhaustion, inexperience), without signs of human or animal intervention.

• 20% fall victim to predation.

• 10% are intentionally killed by humans.

• 20% are electrocuted on medium-voltage lines or die in collisions with high-voltage lines.

  
  

This large-scale monitoring provides unique scientific data to identify “black spots” of mortality and to take concrete measures to reduce risks: securing pylons, marking cables, and better integrating biodiversity into energy planning.

Beyond immediate conservation actions, this project also builds a long-term scientific understanding of the Black Stork’s ecology: its movement dynamics, habitat use, and interactions with infrastructure. As an umbrella species, the Black Stork also offers insights for protecting other large birds with similar ecological traits, such as the White Stork, Osprey, Egyptian Vulture, or Bonelli’s Eagle.

These results underline the urgent need to reconcile the energy transition with biodiversity conservation, to safeguard not only the Black Stork but also an entire group of species threatened by power lines.