Increasing public attention toward North American bird species

Similar to many other animal taxa, bird species worldwide have experienced significant population declines in recent years. Public awareness plays a key role in helping to conserve these species. We measured public interest toward 527 North American bird species. We used the Google Trends tool to quantify temporal trends in Google searches for species names. Overall, a majority of these bird species (78%) have been increasingly searched on Google since 2004. This stands in stark contrast to the proportion of increasing Google search trends for worldwide mammal (20%) and amphibian species (8%) found in previous studies. Interestingly, several metrics of extinction risk, such the proportion of population loss and IUCN Red List status were not significant predictors of increasing Google searches. We did find significant differences in public attention toward bird species living in different breeding biomes and between native and introduced species. We highlight some of the groups whose species are experiencing increases in Google searches, e.g., wetland birds and introduced species, as well as those of critical conservation concern that are receiving less public attention, e.g., grassland birds. Together, these results highlight increased levels of public interest in declining North American bird populations in comparison to other vertebrates and interesting differences between bird groups.