Are Lay People Able to Estimate Breeding Bird Diversity?

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Ornithology
• Environmental Psychology

Background:

• Biodiversity and well-being studies utilize diverse methods for assessing biodiversity, including scientific counts and perceived estimations.
• Understanding laypeople's ability to estimate local biodiversity is crucial for well-being research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of laypeople's estimations of breeding bird species richness compared to professional ornithological surveys and citizen science data.
• To determine if perceived biodiversity correlates with scientifically measured species richness.

Main Methods:

• Conducted bird censuses using standard ornithologist methods and collected citizen science data from Ornitho (Germany).
• Surveyed 1184 laypeople across 40 locations in southwest Germany, asking them to estimate local bird species richness.
• Compared laypeople's estimates with professional census data and citizen science data.

Main Results:

• Citizen science data showed no correlation with professional census counts or laypeople's perceived species richness.
• Laypeople's estimations of bird species richness showed a significant positive correlation with professional census data (r = 0.325, p = 0.041).
• Laypeople's average species richness estimates fell between professional morning and afternoon census values, suggesting estimations are influenced by factors beyond immediate observation.

Conclusions:

• Laypeople demonstrate a generally good capacity for assessing local bird species richness.
• Citizen science data, as used in this study, may not be a reliable proxy for actual biodiversity or public perception.
• Findings support the use of laypeople's biodiversity perceptions in well-being studies, while highlighting potential biases in their estimations.