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As wind energy rapidly expands worldwide, information to minimize impacts of this development on biodiversity is urgently needed. Here we demonstrate how data collected by weather radar networks can inform placement and operation of wind facilities to reduce collisions and minimize habitat‐related impacts on nocturnally migrating birds. We found over a third of nocturnal migrants flew through altitudes within the rotor‐swept zone surrounding the North American Great Lakes, a continentally important migration corridor. Migrating birds concentrated in terrestrial stopover habitats within 20‐km from shorelines, a distance well beyond the current guidelines for construction of new land‐based facilities, and their distributions varied seasonally and at local and regional scales, creating predictable opportunities to minimize impacts from wind energy development and operation. Networked radar data are available across the United States and other countries and broad application of this approach could provide information critical to bird‐friendly expansion of this globally important energy source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrating birds contend with dynamic wind conditions that ultimately influence most aspects of their migration, from broad-scale movements to individual decisions about where to rest and refuel. We used weather surveillance radar data to measure spring stopover distributions of northward migrating birds along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast and found a strong influence of winds over nonadjacent water bodies, the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, along with the contiguous Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, we quantified the relative influence of meridional (north-south) and zonal (west-east) wind components over the 3 water bodies on weekly spring stopover densities along western, central, and eastern regions of the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. Winds over the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean were just as, or more, influential than winds over the Gulf of Mexico, with the highest stopover densities in the central and eastern regions of the coast following the fastest winds from the east over the Caribbean Sea. In contrast, stopover density along the western region of the coast was most influenced by winds over the Gulf of Mexico, with the highest densities following winds from the south. Our results elucidate the important role of wind conditions over multiple water bodies on regionwide stopover distributions and complement tracking data showing Nearctic-Neotropical birds flying nonstop from South America to the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. Smaller-bodied birds may be particularly sensitive to prevailing wind conditions during nonstop flights over water, with probable orientation and energetic consequences that shape subsequent terrestrial stopover distributions. In the future, the changing climate is likely to alter wind conditions associated with migration, so birds that employ nonstop over-water flight strategies may face growing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]