Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c866t1gjh

Description of the data and file structure

We combined published functional trait databases with data collected from a multi-year course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) to predict which of >750 bird species were most likely to appear in >150 tour itineraries marketed to birdwatchers visiting Costa Rica. See methods from associated paper. 

Files and variables

File: BirdwatchingTraitDatabase_Dryad.csv

Description: Trait database. 

Variables

• Order: Taxonomic order

• Family: Taxonomic family

• ScientifcName: Latin name (genus, species)

• CommonName: English name 

• included2020: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class

• notincluded2020: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2020 class

• fraction2020: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class

• included2022: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class

• notincluded2022: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2022 class

• fraction2022: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class

• included2020_More3Days: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• notincluded2020_More3Days: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• fraction2020_More3Days: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• included2022_More3Days: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• notincluded2022_More3Days: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• fraction2022_More3Days: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips more than 3 days in length.

• included2020_More20Spp: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• notincluded2020_More20Spp: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• fraction2020_More20Spp: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• included2022_More20Spp: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• notincluded2022_More20Spp: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• fraction2022_More20Spp: Proportion of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2022 class, only including itineraries for trips with more than 20 species mentioned

• AveTourLength_2020: The average tour length (in days) for all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, in 2020

• AveTourLength_2022: The average tour length (in days) for all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, in 2022

• AveTourSppRich_2020: The average number of species across all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, in 2020

• AveTourSppRich_2022: The average number of species across all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, in 2022

• ave_fraction: Average proportion of itineraries in which the species was present across both years

• ave_fraction_More3Days: Average proportion of itineraries in which the species was present across both years, restricted to itineraries for trips that were greater than 3 days in length.

• ave_fraction_More20Spp: Average proportion of itineraries in which the species was present across both years, restricted to itineraries for trips with more than 20 species reported.

• ave_TourLength_BothYears: The average tour length (in days) for all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, across both years

• ave_TourRichness_BothYears: The average number of species across all the trip itineraries a given species appeared on, across both years

• Mass_Avo: Body mass given as species average (incorporating both male and female body mass) from AVONET (grams)

• BeakCulmen_Avo: Length from the tip of the beak to the base of the skull from AVONET (mm)

• BeakNares_Avo: Length from the anterior edge of the nostrils to the tip of the beak from AVONET (mm)

• BeakWidth_Avo: Width of the beak at the anterior edge of the nostrils from AVONET (mm)

• BeakDepth_Avo: Depth of the beak at the anterior edge of the nostrils from AVONET (mm)

• Tarsus_Avo: Length of the tarsus from the posterior notch between tibia and tarsus, to the end of the last scale of acrotarsium (at the bend of the foot) (mm)

• Wing_Avo: Length from the carpal joint (bend of the wing) to the tip of the longest primary on the unflattened wing from AVONET (mm)

• HandWing_Avo: 100*DK/Lw, where DK is Kipp’s distance and Lw is wing length (i.e., Kipp’s distance corrected for wing size) from AVONET. Species average HWI differ from estimates in Sheard et al. (2020) because of much higher sampling of individuals in some species, as well as taxonomic effects in the BirdLife list (mm)

• Tail_Avo: Distance between the tip of the longest rectrix and the point at which the two central rectrices protrude from the skin, typically measured using a ruler inserted between the two central rectrices from AVONET (mm)

• PrimaryHabitat_Avo: Habitat affiliation from AVONET. Desert (= drylands and other open arid habitats, often sandy with very sparse vegetation);

  Rock (= rocky substrate typically with no or very little vegetation, including rocky outcrops, rocky coastlines, arid stony steppes, rocky mountaintops and mountain slopes);

  Grassland (= open dry to moist grass-dominated landscapes, at all elevations);

  Shrubland (= low stature bushy habitats, included thornscrub, thorny or arid savanna, caatinga, xerophytic shrubland and coastal scrub);

  Woodland (= medium stature tree-dominated habitats, including Acacia woodland, riparian woodlands, mangrove forests, forest edges, also more open parkland with scattered taller trees);

  Forest (= tall tree-dominated vegetation with more or less closed canopy, including palm forest);

  Human modified (urban landscapes, intensive agriculture, gardens);

  Wetland (= wide range of freshwater aquatic habitats including lakes, marshes, swamps and reedbeds);

  Riverine (= associated with rivers and streams at all elevations);

  Coastal (= intertidal zones within immediate vicinity of beaches, estuaries, brackish to salty marshes, including mudflats, lagoons, alkaline wetlands, coastal dunes and harbours);

  Marine (= pelagic, on sea near coasts, including species in the intertidal zone on beaches, and those pelagic species nesting near the sea on cliffs, islets and islands).

• HabitatDensity_Avo:  Habitat density from AVONET. 1= Dense habitats. Species primarily lives in the lower or middle storey of forest, or in dense thickets, dense shrubland etc.

  2= Semi open habitats. Species primarily lives in open shrubland, scattered bushes, parkland, low dry or deciduous forest, thorn forest.

  3= Open habitats. Species primarily lives in desert, grassland, open water, low shrubs, rocky habitats, seashores, cities. Also applies to species living mainly on top of forest canopy (i.e. mostly in the open)

• HabitatStrata_Elton: Habitat strata score from Elton Traits, where higher numbers are higher up in the canopy. Formula is: (BelowWaterProportion)*0+(WaterSurfaceProportion)*1+(GroundProportion)*1+(UnderstoryProportion)*2+(MidStrataProportion)*3+(CanopyProportion)*4+(AerialProportion)*5

• Migration_Avo: Migration score from AVONET. 1 = Sedentary.

  2 = Partially migratory, i.e. minority of population migrates long distances, or most of population undergoes short-distance migration, nomadic movements, distinct altitudinal migration, etc.

  3 = Migratory, i.e. majority of population undertakes long-distance migration

• TrophicLevel_Avo: Trophic level from AVONET. Herbivore = species obtaining at least 70% of food resources from plants; Carnivore = species obtaining at least 70% of food resources by consuming live invertebrate or vertebrate animals; Scavenger = species obtaining at least 70% of food resources from carrion or refuse; Omnivore = species obtaining resources from multiple trophic level in roughly equal proportion

• TrophicNiche_Avo: Trophic niche from AVONET. Frugivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from fruit;

  Granivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from seeds or nuts;

  Nectarivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from nectar;

  Herbivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from other plant materials in non-aquatic systems, including leaves, buds, whole flowers etc.;

  Herbivore aquatic = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from plant materials in aquatic systems, including algae and aquatic plant leaves;

  Invertivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from invertebrates in terrestrial systems, including insects, worms, arachnids, etc.;

  Vertivore = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from vertebrate animals in terrestrial systems, including mammals, birds, reptiles etc.;

  Aquatic Predator = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from vertebrate and invertebrate animals in aquatic systems, including fish, crustacea, molluscs, etc;

  Scavenger = species obtaining at least 60% of food resources from carrion, offal or refuse; Omnivore = Species using multiple niches, within or across trophic levels, in relatively equal proportions

• Lifestyle_Avo: Lifestyle class from AVONET. Aerial = species spends much of the time in flight, and hunts or forages predominantly on the wing;

  Terrestrial = species spends majority of its time on the ground, where it obtains food while either walking or hopping (note this includes species that also wade in water with their body raised above the water);

  Insessorial = species spends much of the time perching above the ground, either in branches of trees and other vegetation (i.e. arboreal), or on other raised substrates including rocks, buildings, posts, and wires;

  Aquatic = species spends much of the time sitting on water, and obtains food while afloat or when diving under the water's surface; Generalist = species has no primary lifestyle because it spends time in different lifestyle classes

• SocialBond_Tob: Social bond score from Tobias et al 2016 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00074/full). 1= solitary (does not form pairs or only just briefly during courtship); 2= short-term pair/group bonds (seasonal consorting of pair or group members AND unstable composition in the future); 3= long-term pair/group bonds (year-round consorting or those with seasonal pair/group bonds AND stable composition in subsequent breeding attempts)

• Nocturnal_Elton: Whether (1) or not (0) the species is nocturnal from Elton traits. 

• Territoriality_Tob:  Territoriality score from Tobias et al 2016 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00074/full). 1= non-territorial (never defends territories); 2= seasonal or weak territoriality; 3= year-round territoriality

• CommunalSignal_Tob:  Communal signaling score from Tobias et al 2016 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00074/full). 0= non-communal signallers (species that do not sing communally); 1= communal signallers (species that sing in groups)

• Duet_Tob:  Duet score from Tobias et al 2016 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00074/full). 0= no duetting (species that do not duet); 1= duetting (species that sing in duets) 

• Chorus_Tob:  Chorus score from Tobias et al 2016 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00074/full).  0= no chorus (species that do not sing choruses); 1= chorus (species that sing as part of chorus)

• MinLatitude_Avo: The minimum latitudinal extent of the species range (restricted to breeding and resident range) from AVONET (decimal degrees)

• Max.Latitude_Avo: The maximum latitudinal extent of the species range (restricted to breeding and resident range) from AVONET (decimal degrees)

• CentroidLatitude_Avo: The geometric centre of the species range (restricted to breeding and resident range) from AVONET (decimal degrees)

• Range.Size_Avo: The total area of the mapped range of the species (not the Extent of Occurrence [EOO]) from AVONET (square km). We used maps shared by BirdLife International and restricted our analysis to areas of the range coded as Presence = 1 (Extant only), Origin = 1 & 2 (Native & Reintroduced),

  Seasonal = 1 & 2 (Resident and breeding). We calculated the total combined mapped area of these parts of the range using the areaPolygon function from the R package geosphere (Hijmans et al., 2011). This function accurately calculates the area in the World Geodetic System (WGS84) projection using spherical distances

• FOO_ave: Average frequency of occurance across ebird checklists year round

• Status_IUCN: IUCN Red List Status (Least concern, near threatened, endangered, vulnerable, critically endangered)

• Trend_IUCN: Population trend (increasing, decreasing, stable, unknown)

• ED_Jetz: Evolutionary Distinctness Score: the weighted sum of branch lengths from the root of the tree to the tip (i.e., a species). from Jetz et al 2014 Current Biology

• AttractivenessMean_sant: Predicted appearance score frrm Santangeli et al 2023, where higher numbers indicate higher scoring species

• AttractivenessSD_sant: Standard deviation in appearance scores from Santangeli et al 2023

• SexMeasured_sant: Which sex was assessed for appearance: average= unknown sex usually for species that can't be discerned; female= female bird only; male= male bird only; male_female_mean= both sexes measured so avereages were taken except for crest when the max value was taken

• Colorfraction_black_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was black

• Colorfraction_blueD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark blue

• Colorfraction_blueL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light blue

• Colorfraction_brownD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark brown

• Colorfraction_brownL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light brown

• Colorfraction_greenD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark green

• Colorfraction_greenL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light green

• Colorfraction_greyD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark grey

• Colorfraction_greyL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light grey

• Colorfraction_purpleD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark purple

• Colorfraction_purpleL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light purple

• Colorfraction_redD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark red

• Colorfraction_redL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light red

• Colorfraction_rufousD_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was dark rufous

• Colorfraction_rufousL_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was light rufous

• Colorfraction_white_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was white

• Colorfraction_yellow_sant: Fraction of the body in images from Santangeli et al 2023 that was yellow

• N.loci_sant: Number of color loci, a measure of colour diversity from Santangeli et al 2023

• Elaboration_sant: How much the overall plumage departs from the average bird (i.e. dull brown-grey coloration) from Santangeli et al 2023

• Sexdichtonomy_sant: Degree of dichromatism among sexes from Santangeli et al 2023

• Crest_sant: Crest presence from Santangeli et al 2023 0= = no crest, 1 = crest follows shape of head, 2 = short crest, and 3 = long crest

• TipName: Label of tip in BirdTree.org

• NumAudioRecordings: Average number of audio recordings across Xeno-canto and Macaulay libraries

• AcousticsScore_Ave: Average acoustic aesthetic score

• AcousticsScore_Modeled: Modeled acoustic aesthetic score accounting for variation among scorers (see Methods)

Code/software

All analyses were conducted in R vers 4.5.1 (see methods of associated paper). 

Access information

Data was derived from the following sources:

• Online birdwatching tour itineraries (see methods)
• Tobias, J. A., C. Sheard, A. L. Pigot, A. J. M. Devenish, J. Yang, M. H. C. Neate-Clegg, N. Alioravainen, T. L. Weeks, R. A. Barber, P. A. Walkden, H. E. A. MacGregor, et al. (2022). AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25:581–597.
• Tobias, J. A., C. Sheard, N. Seddon, A. Meade, A. J. Cotton, and S. Nakagawa (2016). Territoriality, Social Bonds, and the Evolution of Communal Signaling in Birds. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 4:1–15.
• Wilman, H., J. Belmaker, S. Jennifer, C. de la Rosa, M. M. Rivadeneira, and W. Jetz (2014). EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world’ s birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027.
• Santangeli, A., A. Haukka, W. Morris, S. Arkkila, K. Delhey, B. Kempenaers, M. Valcu, J. Dale, A. Lehikoinen, and S. Mammola (2023). What drives our aesthetic attraction to birds? npj Biodiversity 2:1–7.
• eBird (2021). eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. [Online.] Available at http://www.ebird.org.
• Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, D. W. Redding, K. Hartmann, and A. O. Mooers (2014). Global Distribution and Conservation of Evolutionary Distinctness in Birds. Current Biology 24:919–930.
• IUCN (2024). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.