The problem in biodiversity monitoring and conservation is that usually exist vast gaps in available information on the spatial distribution of biodiversity that poses a major challenge for the development of biodiversity indicators and regional conservation planning. Within this context, models that establish relationships between environmental variables and species occurrence have been developed to predict species distribution over large areas. We present an example using two indicator bird species, Tengmalm owl (Aegolius funereus) and Pygmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum). Maximum entropy (Maxent), a presence-only modelling approach, is used to model the distribution of these two species within a large study area in the French Alps. Despite biased sampling design, this method performs very well in predicting spatial distribution of the two owl species and brings useful information to help decision-making concerning the protection of valuable habitats.