Bird utilisation survey software for wind farm sites
A bird utilisation survey (BUS) is a fixed-point count: an observer stands at a point for a set period and records every bird seen, its flight height band and its direction. Wind developers use the counts to estimate how often each species flies through the rotor-swept area. The data volume is the problem — thousands of rows across seasons — and the height-band summaries that matter are usually rebuilt by hand in a spreadsheet.
Built for wind developers running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Bird survey report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Bird survey report
Table 6 — Raptor flights by height band, spring surveys
- Project
- Fictional Plains Wind Farm, pre-construction
- Survey points
- 12 turbine points, 4 reference points
- Count period
- 20 minutes per point, morning and afternoon
| Species | Flights at RSA height (30–180 m) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Wedge-tailed eagle | 17 of 41 flights | Note: Collision risk |
| Nankeen kestrel | 3 of 66 flights | Note: Low height |
| Brown falcon | 5 of 22 flights | Note: Note |
| Black-shouldered kite | 0 of 9 flights | Note: Below RSA |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the bird survey report where your template puts it.
Per count
- Survey point (linked)
- Start time and duration
- Wind speed and direction
- Cloud cover and visibility
- Observer
Per bird record
- Species
- Number of birds
- Flight height band
- Distance from observer
- Flight direction
- Behaviour (soaring, hunting, transit)
Incidental
- Species seen outside the count
- Nest or roost observed
- Map location
Standards the report works to
- Commonwealth survey guidelinesSurvey guidelines for Australia’s threatened birds
- The survey-effort guidance cited when listed birds could use the site.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the bird survey report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the bird utilisation survey form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your sites, transects and plots
Enter sites, transects and plots once, as a register. Every one of your species observations and survey events then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The bird survey report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a bird survey report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The report concludes no threatened species were recorded; the survey event on Transect 3 carries an observation that says otherwise.
Checks a ecology framework usually carries
- Survey effort described meets the guideline for the species being assessed
- Every species in the results table is carried through to the discussion
- Weather, season and access limitations are recorded, not left implied
- Each approval or offset condition is addressed explicitly
Questions
- Can height-band totals be calculated as observers enter counts?
- Calculated fields can count and sum over a repeat, so flights per height band for each count are available the moment the count is submitted.
- Can the same species list be shared by every observer?
- Yes. A reusable module holds the species list and the record structure, so every observer’s form uses the same names and editing the module updates every form that uses it.
- How do we record conditions that invalidate a count?
- Weather fields can drive a visibility rule that asks why the count went ahead, or marks it for exclusion, before the observer can submit.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other ecology work we cover
- Habitat tree assessmentsHabitat tree register
- Koala habitat assessmentsKoala habitat report
- Marine mammal observationsMMO shift report
- Nest box monitoringNest box occupancy report
- Pre-clearance ecology surveysClearance survey report
- Revegetation monitoringPlanting survival report
- Seagrass monitoringSeagrass condition report
- Shorebird countsShorebird census report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your bird survey report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.