Abstract
Voltaire once wrote "the perfect is the enemy of the good." My study on avian mortality (Sovacool, 2009) is not perfect, but it is still a good preliminary assessment. Willis et al. (2009) do not reveal "serious errors" in analysis so much as misunderstandings regarding some key concepts in energy policy as well as simple differences of opinion. Their critique presents adjusted fatality estimates for wind energy but not for nuclear power and fossil fuels, confuses installed capacity with actual electricity generation, and attacks me for using "gray" literature and making comparisons over large areas and time periods when many of their sources do the same.