Overview
HIGHLIGHTS:As a Volunteer Avian Field Assistant (VAFA), you will assist the Field Biologist and Assistant Field Biologist with mist netting and bird banding every morning
Volunteer Avian Field Assistant for Spring or Fall Field Season
(April 15-May 31, 2025) and (August 1 – October 31, 2025)
One-week positions: for inexperienced banders
Two-three-week positions: for those with some experience.
Location: Pelee Island, Ontario
Application deadline: March 1, 2025, and July 1, 2025
Fieldwork Duties:
As a Volunteer Avian Field Assistant (VAFA), you will assist the Field Biologist and Assistant Field Biologist with mist netting and bird banding every morning. Depending on your previous experience, you will help conduct the daily census, and extract birds from nets and band them. You will also be required to perform other duties associated with PIBO’s migration-monitoring program.
As well, all volunteers will be responsible for helping with the daily chores at the PIBO staff house: cooking, cleaning, dish-washing and general clean-up, shopping, taking out compost, driving trash to the landfill, and so on.
Perks/Conditions:
Volunteers will be provided with free housing on the island. Cooking facilities are provided, but you will need to shop for your own groceries. Transportation to and from Pelee Island is also the responsibility of the volunteer. Volunteers should bring their own field gear, including binoculars, hiking boots, rubber boots, mosquito hats/shirts, and clothing for warm or cold, dry or wet, weather. The spring position starts in April, when the weather can still be quite chilly, especially early in the morning when the mist nets go up. However, by mid-May it will start to get warm in the afternoons. A driver’s license is helpful but not essential.
Please note that to do the kind of fieldwork we do on the island, you must be comfortable with snakes, spiders, and biting insects. You must be an early-riser and be able to work with others, and be mature and dependable. Work starts almost every day before dawn. Most afternoons will be free time, apart from data entry and station upkeep.
Qualifications/Requirements:
The Volunteer Avian Field Assistant will:
- have some songbird banding and net extraction experience
- be familiar with most birds of the Great Lakes region, warblers in particular
- be sociable and congenial, since the VAFA is required to assist with welcoming visitors at the banding station
- Assist with the upkeep of the PIBO staff accommodation and field station, help with shopping, cleaning, etc.
- Assist with PIBO island education programs and events, such as banding demonstrations, etc.
Please send cover letter and resume to Suzanne Friemann, Executive Director, Pelee Island Bird Observatory, at suzanne.friemann@pibo.ca, by March 1, 2025.
If you wish to apply for a Volunteer position during the Fall season (August 1 – October 31, 2025), send your cover letter and resume to Suzanne by July 1, 2025.
Our Commitment to Diversity
PIBO actively engages individuals from all backgrounds. We are committed to embracing diversity within our organization because we firmly believe that diverse employee teams help us to achieve our best organizational outcomes and provide the most effective support to the communities we serve. We are deeply dedicated to creating and maintaining an inclusive, equitable and supportive work environment. PIBO believes in growth and supporting our employees and volunteers as best we can so they can become their best selves in and outside of work. We believe that a healthy work environment means building an inclusive culture where people can thrive together and feel supported and empowered.
We strongly encourage people of all backgrounds and identities, including but not limited to people of colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply. PIBO is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team. If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know. In your cover letter, please note which pronouns you use (for example – she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc.).
About Pelee Island Bird Observatory
The Pelee Island Bird Observatory (PIBO) is uniquely situated on the most southerly island in Canada, nestled in the western arc of Lake Erie, between the mainlands of Ohio and Ontario, but most importantly, in the path of two major migratory flyways for songbirds that winter in Central and South America and breed in Ontario. Among PIBO’s many research and outreach projects, PIBO conducts annual migration counts and bird banding. We also monitor the island’s significant breeding bird communities.
