EnviroScience biologists are skilled in winter, migration and breeding bird surveys using audible and visual cues. Surveys using point counts and line transects, with or without audio-lures, are used to detect breeding birds, including waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors. Nocturnal birds such as owls and nightjars are audibly surveyed after dusk. Secondary evidence such as nests, pellets and cavities are also used. This northern saw-whet owl, shown to the right, was photographed during a survey by an EnviroScience biologist.

Many of our highly visible, native birds have been declining throughout the nation, presumably from habitat loss. EnviroScience performs nest searches and monitoring to help determine impacts of forest fragmentation, predation, parasitism and nuisance species on native populations. The decline of certain indicator species can be an early symptom of significant future dilemmas and, if detected early, may lend opportunity for correction.