Fine Feathered Friends

Despite being an ornithologist — someone who should be equally curious about all birds — I confess to appreciating some species more than others. Ali Johnston and I wanted to understand whether our own biases about birds were shared by other people. We used data describing how frequently different species of birds are encountered and data describing internet searches for species to quantify relationships between people and birds in the United States.

Our analyses provide a framework for describing which birds are viewed as “celebrities”, “friends”, “neighbors”, or “strangers”, and for understanding, at least to a degree, why species are viewed differently in contemporary culture. We hope that this approach will enable a different mode of conservation thinking, one that avoids assigning values to species in currencies that may ultimately justify their sacrifice, and, instead, focuses on the possibility of understanding and deepening our collective relationships with the species around us.

In a subsequent study, we were also able to document shifts in relationships between people and birds in the United States over relatively short time periods. Between 2008-2012 and 2013-2017, bird species increased in popularity by an average of 12.6% even after controlling for changes in bird population sizes and numbers of internet searches by Americans. This growing interest in birds was directed more towards local species, suggesting tighter bonds between people and the birds in their area. We are cautiously optimistic about our results from a conservation perspective and hope to better understand the ways in which digital engagement with species shapes conservation outcomes.

Supplementary Information

Schuetz JG, Johnston A (2019) Characterizing the cultural niches of North American birds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(22), 10868–10873. pdf

Robinson SK (2019) Bird niches in human culture and why they matter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(22), 10620–10622. pdf

Schuetz JG, Johnston A (2020) Tracking the cultural niches of North American birds through time. People and Nature, pan3.10173. pdf