Hutchins said a recent study found that wind farms kill about 572,000 birds a year.

A spokesman for the company building the farm near Willcox acknowledged the danger to birds, but said extensive efforts have been taken to mitigate the threat.

“The goal is zero kill of birds,” said Jon Kilberg, president of Houston-based Torch Renewable Energy, which formed a company called Red Horse Wind 2 LLC to build and manage the $100 million project. The company broke ground in December.

“We’ve had an ornithologist on site for over one year,” Kilberg said. “We’ve done physical bird counts. We’ve done nest surveys. We’ve flown helicopters under the guidance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make sure we would not impact local raptor species.

“We’ve sited the farm to be away from sources of food and sources of water” that attract birds, Kilberg said. “We will have an eagle-conservation plan because there are golden eagles nesting outside of the site by several miles. We expect no raptor deaths.”

POWER FOR 30,000 HOMES

The wind farm, which has been approved by Cochise County planning and zoning commissioners, is in an area known as Allen Flat about 20 miles west of Willcox.