The Birds, Ctd

A reader writes:

Yes, gruesome. Odd, however, that Think Progress is meticulously tracking the deaths of a few hundred birds, but never mentions that it favors attempting to replace oil with a technology - wind farms - known to kill up to 40,000 birds a year, every year, in a similarly gruesome fashion, leaving them to die in pain on the ground half-beaten to death. I guess the latter deaths aren't as politically useful, thus not worthy of any attention. But, by all means, let us declare the end of oil because we can easily switch over to ... um, well, something I'm sure. Oh, man, how come reality has to intrude on every great progressive talking point?!

PolitiFact backs up that claim - and then some:

The American Bird Conservancy estimated in 2003 that between 10,000 and 40,000 birds were killed each year at wind farms across the country, about 80 percent of which were songbirds and 10 percent birds of prey. "With the increased capacity over the last seven years, we now estimate that 100,000 – 300,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year," said Conservancy spokesman Robert Johns. By our math, that comes to 274 to 822 birds a day killed by wind farms across the country.

Update - more context from a reader:

40,000 or 300,000 birds is a lot - but a tiny number compared to some other causes of death. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates (PDF) that somewhere between 97-196 million birds are killed annually by collisions with building windows.