Validating AI-powered bird monitoring at sea: key lessons from our work with The Biodiversity Consultancy

At Spoor, we’re committed to helping developers monitor bird activity with accuracy, consistency, and scientific rigour—especially in environments where traditional methods fall short.

One of the most promising frontiers? Offshore buoys equipped with cameras and Spoor’s AI software. These systems offer a unique opportunity to capture near-continuous data on bird presence, movement, and flight behaviour in areas where vessel-based or aerial surveys are costly, sporadic, or impractical.

To assess the effectiveness of this novel approach, we recently collaborated with The Biodiversity Consultancy for an independent review of data from a buoy-mounted camera trial. The goal: test assumptions, evaluate performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Testing a new model for offshore bird monitoring

Our system combines off-the-shelf cameras with AI-powered detection and tracking, supported by verification from in-house ornithologists. In this trial, we focused on key performance areas such as detection range, flight height accuracy, track duration, and species recognition.

The Biodiversity Consultancy’s assessment placed these findings in context, comparing our approach to more established monitoring methods—like radar, digital aerial surveys, and turbine-mounted cameras. The result was a detailed picture of what buoy-mounted systems can do well, and where further development is needed.

What we learned

The review confirmed several important strengths:

• Temporal coverage: Near-continuous data collection allows for long-term behavioural insights
• Flight height estimates: Critical for refining collision risk models
• Cost-effectiveness: Cameras on buoys offer a scalable alternative to crewed surveys

It also reaffirmed that while spatial coverage is limited compared to wide-area surveys, buoy-mounted systems can play a powerful complementary role in a larger monitoring strategy—particularly when used alongside other methods.

This independent review also gave us insight into how our AI models perform in offshore settings and how we might improve detection algorithms or expand identification capabilities in future updates.

A step forward for data-driven mitigation

We’re proud of what this collaboration has helped demonstrate: that camera-based, AI-driven systems can reliably capture meaningful data on offshore bird activity—even in remote and dynamic conditions. This validation brings us closer to our mission of supporting nature-positive wind development with practical, scalable technology.

As Spoor continues working with The Biodiversity Consultancy and other partners, we’re focused on improving real-time data quality, integrating insights into permitting workflows, and helping developers make decisions backed by evidence—not assumptions.

🔗 You can read The Biodiversity Consultancy’s full case study on this collaboration here.

📩 Want to learn more about how Spoor’s offshore monitoring technology works in practice? Reach out to our team or explore our other project highlights.