What factors affect the ‘flocking’ of birdwatchers during bird rarity observations?

Abstract

Streszczenie

Wykrywanie i obserwacje rzadkich gatunków ptaków to istotne aspekty kultury ornitologicznej. Dążenie do obejrzenia rzadkich gatunków awifauny (dalej ‐ rzadkości) jest nie tylko kluczowym aspektem turystyki obserwacyjnej, ale także fascynującym połączeniem ornitologii i socjologii. Jednak wzorce przyjazdu do miejsca występowania i gromadzenia się obserwatorów ptaków wokół rzadkich gatunków i czynniki wpływające na te wzorce in situ są w dużej mierze niezbadane. Do analizy wykorzystano dane z 50 wywiadów z obserwatorami oraz poddano analizie zdjęcia zgrupowań ludzi podczas obserwacji rzadkości. Łącznie analizie poddano 103 obserwacje dotyczące 71 rzadkich gatunków odnotowanych w Polsce w latach 1996–2022. Wykazaliśmy, że na liczbę osób uczestniczących w obserwacjach rzadkości wpływał status gatunku (rzadsze taksony przyciągały większe grupy osób), rok (wzrost w ostatnich latach) oraz interakcja między tymi czynnikami (w ostatnich latach więcej osób uczestniczy w obserwacjach bardzo rzadkich gatunków ptaków). Co więcej, odległość od ośrodków miejskich znacząco negatywnie wpłynęła na wielkość grup obserwatorów ptaków. Ponadto stwierdziliśmy, że odsetek obserwatorów, którzy z powodzeniem zaobserwowali rzadkie gatunki ptaków w każdym miejscu, zmniejszył się w ostatnich latach, ale wzrósł w weekendy. Stwierdziliśmy również, że odsetek kobiet w grupach obserwatorów wzrósł w ostatnich latach. Ponadto, „obserwatorki” ptaków częściej uczestniczyły w obserwacjach bardziej powszechnych rzadkości niż mężczyźni. Uzyskane przez nas wyniki wskazują, że na liczbę obserwatorów przyjeżdżających w miejsce wykrycia rzadkich gatunków ptaków mogą wpływać różne czynniki, w tym rzadkość gatunków, rok i odległość od miast. Dynamiczny wzrost udziału kobiet w obserwacjach ptaków w Polsce przypomina trendy odnotowane w innych krajach, a na zwiększone ich zaangażowanie w obserwacje częstszych rzadkości mogą potencjalnie wpływać odmienne motywacje.

INTRODUCTION

Carum est, quod rarum est

Latin proverb

Detecting and collecting rare and unusual items is an inherent aspect of human nature and is present in various domains of human activity, from collecting post stamps and fashion to field expeditions (Johnson, 2008; Kapferer, 2015). The documentation and curation of natural rarities play a significant role in museum collections and libraries, but it is also a common practice among amateur enthusiasts interested in living organisms including insects (Tournant et al., 2012) and birds (Sheard, 1999). A human fascination with rarities does not necessarily translate into the physical possession of these items, such as trophy collection (Palazy et al., 2012). Instead, it often involves taking pictures or simply witnessing and reporting observations of rare phenomena.

The latter case is crucial for birdwatching, a dynamically developing and growing leisure activity dedicated to the observation of wild-living birds, sometimes even adopted as a lifestyle (Janeczko et al., 2021; Sekercioglu, 2002). Some birdwatchers invest substantial financial resources and time in travelling to observe bird rarities worldwide, a phenomenon known as twitching (Connell, 2009; Janeczko et al., 2021; Sheard, 1999); Overall, birdwatchers and other ecotourists annually pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the global economy (Precedence Research, 2023; Sekercioglu, 2002). Documenting rare species occurrence is also valuable in nature conservation (Randler, 2023; Randler et al., 2023); birdwatchers often actively participate in wildlife conservation activities (McFarlane & Boxall, 1996) and their activities are the backbone of several huge citizen science projects such as eBird () and iNaturalist () (Randler, 2023; Straka & Turner, 2013). Hence, understanding their motivations and activities is crucial to enhancing evidence-based conservation efforts and devising strategies to promote engagement with birdwatching activities (Bennett et al., 2017; Janeczko et al., 2021; Jayalath et al., 2023; Stemmer et al., 2022).

The discovery of a rare bird often involves considerable luck but is also a signal of good skills among birdwatchers (Booth et al., 2011; Randler, 2022). The observations of scarce bird species are generally valued by birdwatchers and, therefore, could attract more attention than relatively more common rarities (Brock et al., 2021; but see Laney et al., 2021). Joint bird observations often lead to interactions between the involved participants, including the exchange of experiences and opportunities for participants to present their own equipment, skills and expertise (Prior & Schaffner, 2011). However, the chance to observe a bird rarity generally quickly ‘decays’ with time since the initial report, a phenomenon widely known among birdwatchers. We could, a bit jokingly, state that birdwatchers form rarity-seeking groups at sites with rarity occurrences like flocks of birds with different profession, place of origin, favourite habitat and preferred diet (Beauchamp, 2022; Bialek et al., 2012; Booth et al., 2011).

Historical birdwatching was often characterized by an individualistic and solitary approach, involving particularly male enthusiasts, with observations frequently conducted during extended solo journeys (Moss, 2013). However, in recent decades, the increasing popularity and broadening of birding, also driven by technological innovations, have caused a significant shift in birdwatching practices. This transformation is manifested particularly by a massive increase in the number of people with diverse motivations engaged in watching birds (Randler, 2022, 2023; Randler et al., 2020; Sekercioglu, 2002), alongside significant variations in birdwatching behaviours attributed to gender (Sali et al., 2008), observable even among experienced birdwatchers (Cooper & Smith, 2010; Lee et al., 2015). However, many aspects of this transformation remain poorly studied and understood. For example, male and female participation in birdwatching is approximately equal in numbers, but males represent the majority of advanced birdwatchers and also participants in competitive birdwatching events (Janeczko et al., 2021; McFarlane & Boxall, 1996; Scott et al., 1999). Moreover, male and female birdwatchers appear to exhibit distinct approaches to birdwatching, with male participants more frequently emphasizing the opportunity to showcase their skills, while females prioritizing birdwatching for personal enjoyment, satisfaction and recreation (Cooper & Smith, 2010; Lee et al., 2015; Moore et al., 2008). This indicates that male birdwatchers may more often ‘chase’ for extreme rarities, while this behaviour may be more relaxed in female birdwatchers. However, the factors that affect in situ presence and participation of the two genders when searching for bird rarities remain largely unexplored as previous studies were based mainly on questionnaires about general motivations of male and female birdwatchers to birdwatching rather than direct observations of their behaviour in the field (e.g. Sali et al., 2008).

With limited free time, typically constrained by regular work and available financial resources, dedicated birdwatchers usually have to decide which observations and species to pursue and when it is worth travelling. Internal motivation, influenced by an observer's desire to see a rarity, significantly influence birdwatchers' behaviour (Lee et al., 2015; Randler, 2023; Sali et al., 2008; Tryjanowski et al., 2023) and may also stem from interactive effects of rarity commonness, weekday, distance from the place of residence and the length of time during which a birding rarity has been present at a particular location (Booth et al., 2011; Sharrock, 1966; Zmihorski et al., 2012). Despite the critical importance of observing rare birds for many birdwatchers, there has been no comprehensive analysis to date that examined how the presence of rarities attracts in situ crowds of birdwatchers and how those are modulated by confounding factors (see also Booth et al., 2011).

In this study, we explore the factors that affect the birdwatching crowd (group) size when observing bird rarities in Poland. We also estimated gender ratios in the assembled crowds in order to identify factors correlated with the proportion of female participants in twitching rare birds. Finally, we explore which factors are associated with the proportion of observers who successfully saw a given rarity at a specific site; for example, it may be affected by observer effort and may exhibit spatial and temporal variation both within (e.g. weekend effect) and between year (e.g. because of increasingly available modern cameras and other recording devices) (Laney et al., 2021; Zmihorski et al., 2012). By investigating the factors that influence ‘flocking’ of birdwatchers around rare birds, including gender effects, our study contributes to the broader literature on human–nature interactions, enriching our understanding of the sociocultural dimensions of ornithology and human engagement with biodiversity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data collection

Similar to many other countries evidence for claimed observations of the locally rare bird species, such as verbal descriptions, photographs and video recordings submitted by observers, are assessed and validated by the national bird rarities committee in Poland, that is the Polish Avifaunistic Commission (). Only observations for which the committee finds the evidence provided sufficient and reliable are considered verified and ‘accepted’ (hereafter ‘rare bird event’). We focused only on these ‘accepted’ rare bird observations because they (a) could attract the attention of more birdwatchers (despite the lack of an immediate decision by the Avifaunistic Commission, the observations later recognized as ‘accepted’ often had solid photographic documentation, making observations easy to verify and increasing their attractiveness) and (b) minimize the possibility of introducing methodological issues related to unconfirmed or even wrongly identified observations. Altogether, we included in our analysis 201 observations of 109 rare bird species and subspecies from 1996 to 2022 observed in Poland.

We focused on rare bird events that were both (a) ‘twitchable’, that is were publicly announced and available to other birdwatchers after initial spotting and (b) contained details on observation date and place. The details on the date and place of each rare bird presence in Poland were obtained via phone and email correspondence, text message services, discussions with members of the dedicated Facebook group (Birding Poland), and webpages reporting bird rarities in Poland (mainly and ).

We used multiple approaches to estimate the number and gender ratio of birdwatchers observing the rarity on a given day. First, we a priori identified and asked for help 50 birdwatchers who directly participated in rare bird observations and collected data on the characteristics of birdwatcher gatherings for us during these visits. These selected birdwatchers collected information on the maximum number of observers and their gender composition (inspected visually) during their visit to the site. Note that the chance to observe a bird rarity generally quickly decreases with time since the initial report; therefore, rare birds attract the greatest attention shortly after the first report, creating optimal settings for the presence of spatially and temporally concentrated birdwatcher crowds. In most cases, shortly after a field visit, we interviewed selected informers, minimizing the possibility to report potentially incorrect estimates. However, we did not estimate how long each of our informers stayed at the site of observation (in most cases, this was 0.5–2 h); therefore, we acknowledge that this factor might confound the birdwatcher group size. Whenever possible, we supplemented the interview of the primary informers with additional people present during the observation to increase the robustness of our estimates. Second, our informers often knew how many birdwatchers were present at the site earlier and who came later that day, further improving our estimates. Third, we supplemented these data based on a list of observers reporting their observations to the Polish birdwatching database (mainly and ). Fourth, to supplement these data with mostly older observations, we analysed 121 photos of the birdwatcher groups directly sent to us by observers or those available online from different days of the rare birds' stay (Figure 1). For each observation, we again estimated the maximum number of birdwatchers gathered around the bird; if the same bird individual was observed on different days, we estimate the maximum group size for each day. However, photos may not capture the whole group of observers and, hence, may underestimate the number of present observers. To minimize this possibility and to identify how complete the photo of each crowd was, we contacted the authors of photos and asked them about details that were compared with the pictures. Photos that did capture a full or nearly complete group of birdwatchers and observations, where informers were unable to reliably estimate the size of the birdwatcher group, were excluded from the further analyses.

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Whenever possible, we obtained the rarity rank (hereafter ‘commonness’; lower values indicate rarer observations) for each rare bird event, ranging from the first to the 395th country record. For example, the first ever documented observation of the greater short-toed lark Calandrella brachydactyla in Poland would be scored as number one, whereas later observations were assigned chronologically to increasing integers (2nd observation = two, 3rd observation = three, etc.). This information was obtained from the website of the Polish Avifaunistic Committee and their reports published in the Ornis Polonica journal, a monography on rare birds in Poland (Stawarczyk et al., 2017), dedicated websites and the ‘Birding Poland’ Facebook group. However, this information was not available for all observations (n = 16); hence, we had to exclude these observations from the main analyses. Furthermore, we collected data on the duration of the presence of each rare bird individual in Poland (in days; this was calculated as the difference between the first and last successful observation date of a particular bird within the territory of Poland), year of observation, whether the observation occurred during the weekend (binary variable: yes or no), season (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and distance between the observation site and the nearest city with ≥50 thousand inhabitants (in kilometres; measured using Google Maps as a straight distance).

This study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Poznan University of Life Sciences (no. 2/4/2023). Informed consent was obtained from all survey participants verbally after having shared a statement on the research objectives with them; verbal consent was chosen because our team members and the respondents are typically well-acquainted. No demographic and personal information is disclosed for individual interviewed respondents, and only aggregated data for participants in birdwatcher groups are provided to ensure confidentiality and anonymity of all respondents and participants.

Statistical analyses

First, we modelled the number of birdwatchers gathered during a rare bird event (i.e. crowd size; dependent variable; n = 185) as a function of bird commonness (log-transformed), year of observation, weekend, season, length of the bird's stay in Poland (log-transformed), and distance between the observation site and the nearest city (predictors). We also tested for the significance of an interaction between bird commonness and year (to test for the potential increase in the group size around rare birds during the last years). We used a generalized linear mixed model with negative binomial error distribution because we detected an over-dispersion in the originally used Poisson model. In all our models, regardless of the dependent variable (see also below), we included bird species ID as the random intercept. We always started with modelling the global (full) model with all predictors and interactions included; however, we subsequently reduced the model using the backward elimination method.

Second, we modelled the number of female observers in the birdwatcher groups for each rare bird event (n = 164, we were unable to reliably estimate the number of female observers in 21 cases) using a Poisson model as a function of year, weekend, season, length of the bird stay and distance to the city. We used as an offset term the total crowd size, and hence, the dependent variable was then effectively a proportion.

Third, we estimated the number of observers who successfully saw a given bird rarity at each site (n = 185) and modelled it using a Poisson model as a function of year, weekend, season, length of the bird stay and distance to city. We used as an offset variable the total group size (i.e. total number of observers present at each site, including both successful and unsuccessful observers) as a proxy for sampling and reporting effort; the dependent variable was then again effectively a proportion.

Before the analyses, we checked multicollinearity between predictors using variance inflation factors (VIFs), revealing no severe collinearity issues (Zuur et al., 2009). We tested the significance of the association between dependant and predictor variables using the likelihood ratio test (LRT), which compares the full model to a reduced model where the target variable been dropped according to AIC (Akaike Information Criterion); we used the drop1 function. All visualizations were made using the packages ggplot2 v. 3.4.4 (Wickham, 2016) and ggeffects v. 1.3.1 (Lüdecke, 2018). All statistical analyses were conducted in R v. 4.1.3 statistical software (R Development Core Team, 2018).

RESULTS

In the final model on the size of the birdwatcher group (Table S1), we found a significant negative interaction between bird commonness and year (Figure 2a; df = 1, LRT = 9.997, p = 0.002), indicating that during recent years there was an increase in the size of the birdwatcher groups observing rarer species. The group size was also positively predicted by the length of the bird rarity presence in Poland (Figure 2b; df = 1, LRT = 78.216, p < 0.001) but decreased with the distance from the rarity site to the nearest city (Figure 2c; df = 1, LRT = 4.743, p = 0.029). We found that neither season (df = 1, LRT = 1.782, p = 0.618) nor weekend (df = 1, LRT = 3.549, p = 0.059) were significant predictors of the birdwatcher group size and were excluded from the final model.

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The female proportion in birdwatching crowds (mean female proportion ± SD = 0.19 ± 0.16; Table S2) declined with the length of the bird rarity presence in Poland (Figure 2d; df = 1, LRT = 4.859, p = 0.028) but increased with the species commonness (Figure 2e; df = 1, LRT = 20.050, p < 0.001) and also toward recent years (Figure 2f; df = 1, LRT = 5.576, p = 0.018). We found that the weekend (df = 1, LRT = 0.546, p = 0.460), season (df = 3, LRT = 0.282, p = 0.963) and distance to the city (df = 1, LRT = 2.411, p = 0.121) were not significant predictors of the proportion of females in birdwatcher crowds.

The proportion of observers who successfully saw a given bird rarity (Table S3) decreased in recent years (Figure 2g; df = 1, LRT = 4.851, p = 0.028). We also found that the effect of the weekend was significant (df = 1, LRT = 7.361, p = 0.007); the proportion of observers who successfully saw a bird rarity was higher during the weekend (mean ± SE = 0.927 ± 0.259) than on other days (0.799 ± 0.042) (Table S3). However, we found that this proportion was not significantly associated with species commonness (df = 1, LRT = 0.214, p = 0.645), season (df = 3, LRT = 1.330, p = 0.722), distance to the city (df = 1, LRT = 0.044, p = 0.835) and duration of bird presence in Poland (df = 1, LRT = 2.770, p = 0.096).

DISCUSSION

A previous study from the United Kingdom revealed that birdwatcher numbers looking for bird rarities were almost entirely explained by species rarity rank (Booth et al., 2011). We went further by providing a more detailed analysis of multiple factors affecting the ‘flocking’ of birdwatchers around bird rarities in Poland. Similarly to Booth et al. (2011), we found that the rarer species, estimated using the number of historical observations of each species in Poland, attracted more people but this association was more pronounced in recent years. Before 2009, this effect was weaker and crowd size was similar across bird species regardless of their rarity rank. The increase in interest in observations of extremely rare species in recent years may be related to a general increase in interest in birdwatching and also the increased possibility of sharing such observations publicly due to new technologies and online platforms (Janeczko et al., 2021; Kronenberg, 2016), However, this trend may also signal a shift in Poland's birdwatching culture, transitioning from a casual pastime to a lifestyle, characterized by increased competitiveness and a dedicated focus on observing bird rarities, that is twitching (Brock et al., 2021; Randler, 2021; Randler et al., 2023).

The classical concept of rarity in economics proposes that the value attributed to rare goods stems from human individuals appreciating the uniqueness of consuming something exclusive and unavailable to others (Koford & Tschoegl, 1998). Booth et al. (2011) argued that observations of rare species of organisms may represent a distinct scenario because partaking in this activity typically does not hinder others from doing so. However, after the initial report, the chance of spotting a rare bird quickly decreases with time and the chance to observe extremely rare species again is low, factors that presumably keep the high value of extremely rare bird observations among dedicated birdwatchers. However, determining the precise value of spotting rare bird species can be challenging due to the subjective nature of preferences and the diverse motivations of birdwatchers (Kolstoe & Cameron, 2017), including practical obstacles such as the distance between the place of residence and those of observation. For example, although birdwatchers often travel considerable distances to observe rare birds (Callaghan et al., 2018, 2020), we showed that especially rarities observed close to cities, where most birdwatchers live, were more heavily visited than rarities observed at remote places (Moss, 2013; Randler, 2021; Vas, 2017). Moreover, more observers accumulated around rarities that have stayed in a given place longer, hence, increasing the probability of spotting (Sharrock, 1966; Sheard, 1999). Our results indicate that these factors, that is distance to city, length of rarity stay at site and year, were generally more critical predictors of birdwatcher crowd size than species commonness in Poland. Interestingly, although previous studies suggested that most people come to observe rarities on weekends, which is related to more time available during weekends than working days to pursue a favourite hobby, we did not observe this ‘weekend effect’ in our sample (Sharrock, 1966; Zmihorski et al., 2012); it is possible that the motivation to see a rare species overcomes this weekend effect, as the desire to observe a rare bird species may take precedence over the typical weekend patterns.

Our results also showed a gender transition in Polish birdwatching, which, similar to other countries, is changing from a predominantly male hobby to a more balanced gender ratio (Cooper & Smith, 2010; Moore et al., 2008). Interestingly, the proportion of females in birdwatcher crowds increased when the bird species rarities were relatively more common. This may be related to the new generation of young females in birdwatching who may choose to observe species that are easier to recognize, which they have not seen before anyway, and do not focus on often difficult to identify and hidden species, usually difficult to identify (Randler et al., 2023; Schaffner, 2009; States, 2004). Previous studies on gender patterns in birdwatching focused mainly on psychological commitment and motivations for birding. Females were found to appreciate more the importance of birdwatching in terms of outdoor recreation, personal enjoyment, and enrichment, while male participants reported more that birdwatching allows them to display their skills and share their knowledge; moreover, female and male participation in birdwatching may be differently affected by other factors such as education, age, marital status and area of residence (Lee et al., 2015; Moore et al., 2008; Sali et al., 2008; Tryjanowski et al., 2023). Moreover, although birdwatching may be taken equally seriously by both genders, the two groups may display different styles of birdwatching including lower participation of women in competitions such as Big Year (i.e. a personal birdwatching challenge in which an individual attempts to observe as many bird species as possible within a single calendar year) or life lists (i.e. the list of every species of birds seen during the entire life of birdwatcher) (Cooper & Smith, 2010; Janeczko et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2015; McFarlane & Boxall, 1996; Scott et al., 1999). Nevertheless, our findings indicate that female birdwatchers have been engaged in observing rare species as much as males, especially in recent years, though their preferences for specific species vary. This may stem from different aesthetic preferences between genders, influencing the selection of species to observe, with female observers not necessarily prioritizing those visually less appealing, which may be rarer and thus attract attention primarily of advanced birdwatchers (still primarily males) (Randler, 2023). Gender differences in birdwatching styles, particularly in situ gender patterns in the behaviour of birdwatchers, represent one of the questions worth more in-depth analysis in the future.

We also found that the proportion of birdwatchers who successfully observed rarity at a specific site was higher for rarities observed during the weekends. This observation may be related to the fact that people generally have more free time during weekends, potentially allowing them to spend more time searching for interesting bird individuals and documenting them better (Zmihorski et al., 2012). Note, however, that the weekend effect was not detectable in the case of birdwatchers' group size, indicating weekday impacts may differ for various aspects of birdwatchers' behaviour. This result also provides more evidence on temporal bias in human sampling efforts and documentation quality on natural phenomena (Boakes et al., 2010). However, somewhat surprisingly (because of generally increasing human mobility and site accessibility in recent years), the proportion of birdwatchers who successfully observed bird rarity decreased in recent years. We do not know the exact reason behind this. Still, we speculate that it may be related to increased birdwatching activity in the field, causing a greater disturbance at sites and potentially resulting in an earlier departure of birds, and/or to the broadening of the birdwatching public, potentially driving shifts in the mean level of identification ability among participants.

The pursuit of rare species has gained prominence in the life of many modern birdwatchers, paralleling hobbies centred around the acquisition and cataloguing of uncommon items (Angulo & Courchamp, 2009; Kapferer, 2015). Our findings prompt a discussion on whether the current model of birdwatching, particularly twitching, yields predominantly positive or negative consequences for both people and nature and what trajectory it may take in the future. There is probably no simple answer. On the one hand, birdwatching increasingly entails significant costs from enthusiasts regarding time, money, and energy, along with an ecological footprint, as manifested in exhaust emissions and environmental pollution (e.g. Marzouki et al., 2012). Mass birdwatching and twitching also raise other ethical concerns, such as whether intensive seeking for rare birds outside their typical range of distribution has a potentially harmful impact on local populations of common birds but also causes stress and discomfort to these rare birds finding themselves in unfamiliar and often unsuitable habitats (Bozó & Csörgő, 2024). Moreover, humans' inherent inclination to assign excessive importance to rarity drives an imbalanced exploitation of rare species even within their native range, which may negatively affect their numbers and ultimately propel them toward an extinction spiral (Courchamp et al., 2006). However, birdwatching also presents opportunities to improve bird protection through increased field exploration and local knowledge and the advancement of modern study methodologies facilitated by data gathering in citizen science projects. Furthermore, this lifestyle can be beneficial to our health, promoting physical well-being through outdoor activity and exercise, as well as mental well-being by encouraging memory training and mindfulness (Randler, 2022; Schaffner, 2009). Birds also offer an ecological service to people by attracting birdwatchers, whose spending benefits businesses and local communities, even though birdwatching itself has no direct cost. However, the line between beneficial personal enjoyment and harmful obsession remains blurred, and many aspects of birdwatching and other human leisure activities in nature remain unexplored.

A promising avenue for future investigation could include exploration of the motivations of birdwatchers and other nature enthusiasts, considering sociodemographic factors alongside personal incentives, psychological and emotional impacts of birdwatching and other types of leisure activities in nature on participants, assessing their awareness of the environmental repercussions linked to these activities and the potential role of birdwatching in education and ecotourism. Furthermore, comparing results obtained from various sources, such as immediate reporting of birdwatchers' field activities by direct participants, reporting after some time and photo analyses, may yield valuable methodological insights. Further studies could also focus on the absolute and relative popularity of twitching compared to other forms of birdwatching participation. Broadening the scope, it is essential to explore the multidimensional effects of birdwatching, including its implications for environmental conservation and disturbance, and to examine the benefits and costs of birdwatching to local human communities. Further areas for investigation may include birdwatching's psychological impacts, educational role, ecotourism potential and sustainable practices.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Piotr Tryjanowski and Michał Polakowski established the original idea; Michał Polakowski and Paweł Czechowski collected data and questionnaire birdwatchers; Łukasz Jankowiak analysed data; Peter Mikula and Piotr Tryjanowski wrote the first version of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Polish birdwatchers for diligently documenting and sharing their observations with us. We also thank the Polish Avifaunistic Commission for its efficient work and verification of records of rare bird species occurrence in Poland and three anonymous reviewers for improving this manuscript. We are thankful to the photographers for generously sharing their photos with us. P.T., P.M. and A.M. gratefully acknowledge the support from the Institute for Advanced Study TUM—Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship. P.M. is also thankful for the support from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences CZU Prague within the framework of the Research Excellence in Environmental Sciences (Project REES; REES 003) and support from Anna Milosavljevičová during the research. The research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland under the “Regional Excellence Initiative” Program (No. RID/SP/0045/2024/01).

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data are available in Figshare repository ().

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