Len Thomas Marc Kery Steve T. Buckland David L. Borchers Eric Rexstad Rachel M. Fewster Darryl I. MacKenzie J. Andrew Royle Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita Colleen M. Handel David C. Pavlacky Jr Richard J. Camp Tiago A. Marques 2017 In a recent paper, Hutto (2016a) challenges the need to account for detectability when interpreting data from point counts. A number of issues with model-based approaches to deal with detectability are presented, and an alternative suggested: surveying an area around each point over which detectability is assumed certain. The article contains a number of false claims and errors of logic, and we address these here. We provide suggestions about appropriate uses of distance sampling and occupancy modeling, arising from an intersection of design- and model-based inference. application/pdf 10.1002/eap.1553 en Ecological Society of America Model-based approaches to deal with detectability: a comment on Hutto (2016) article