This Rare Bird Has Brought One Of The Largest Scottish Clean Energy Projects To A Standstill

It's the whimbrel 1, Scottish wind farm nil.

The whimbrel, a rare species of bird, has managed to halt work on one of the biggest wind farm projects in Scotland after environmentalists' claimed the operation would endanger the species and obscure its habitat, the Times of Scotland reported on Wednesday.

The breeding grounds of the endangered species are located on a proposed 30-acre wind farm that would have been fitted with 103 wind-turbines on the Shetland Islands, located northeast of mainland Britain.

"This is quite possibility the largest industrial development in the history of Shetland,” Stuart Brooks, chief executive of the conservation charity John Muir Trust, said. "The scale of impact on the world-renowned natural landscape of these islands is unimaginable."

Under the Wild Birds Directive 2009, a judge ruled that the Scottish government failed to take into account the environmental impact when approving the project last year.

The whimbrel is one of the world's most-wide ranging shorebirds. It breeds in the Arctic, in the eastern and western hemispheres, and it migrates to South America, Africa, south Asia and Australia.