Trump Misidentifies Birds in Wind Turbine Posts

President Donald Trump has once again been caught misidentifying a bird species in a series of social media posts where he criticizes wind turbines. He claimed, “Eagles going down!” while sharing images that he falsely asserts are of dead bald eagles.

Trump has continued his campaign against wind energy by asserting that millions of birds are being killed by these facilities. In his latest post on Truth Social, he shared an image of a bird lying motionless near a wind farm and captioned it, “Eagles going down!” However, the bird in the photo is not a bald eagle but a red kite that was killed in Spain, as reported in a 2011 article from The Telegraph.

In another post, Trump shared a picture of what appears to be a group of birds flying near a wind turbine and wrote, “Killing birds by the millions!” This image was originally posted on Flickr in 2006 by the Taiwanese environmental group Changhua Coast Conservation Action.

There is limited verifiable data on bird fatalities caused by wind turbines in recent years. However, according to the MIT Climate Portal, studies from 2013 and 2014 estimated that between 140,000 and 679,000 birds are killed annually by wind turbines in the United States.

A 2009 memo from the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million birds are lost each year due to oil field production skim pits and commercial and centralized oil field wastewater disposal facilities.

Trump also shared an article from Fox News Digital that reported the Department of the Interior fining Orsted Onshore North America over $32,000. The publication stated that the administration accused the company of killing two bald eagles with its wind turbines in Nebraska and Illinois. A spokesperson for the wind facility said that Orsted will “continue to engage and cooperate with” the Fish and Wildlife Service on this issue.

Earlier this week, Trump faced criticism from California Governor Gavin Newsom after sharing a photo of a dead falcon and claiming that wind turbines were killing “our beautiful Bald Eagles.” In response to Trump’s post, Newsom’s press team wrote on X, “Dozy Don doesn’t know what America’s bird looks like???”

Trump has consistently opposed wind projects while supporting the fossil fuel industry. In 2012, before he ran for president for the first time, he addressed the Scottish Parliament to oppose nearly a dozen turbines that were eventually built near his Aberdeenshire golf course.

During his second term in office, Trump’s regulators have attempted to revoke permits for six offshore wind projects on the East Coast and halted the construction of two more, as reported by Politico earlier this month.

The Trump administration has also proposed new oil drilling off the coasts of California, Florida, and Alaska.

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