Frątczak Martyna, Sparks Tim H, Randler Christoph, Tryjanowski Piotr
Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tubingen, Germany.
PeerJ. 2020 Mar 2;8:e8673. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8673. eCollection 2020.
Birdwatching is a very popular and increasing leisure activity, and the study and observation of birds is more popular in the morning due to the greater activity among birds at that time of day. The aim of our study was to find out whether there was a relationship between the circadian preference of observers and their favourite bird species and whether it was influenced by such factors as professional status, age and gender. In an e-mail survey we asked a total of 433 Polish ornithologists (professionals) or birdwatchers (non-professionals) for their morningness-eveningness preferences (four categories) and favourite (open choice) bird species and received 143 responses. The temporal (circadian) preferences of respondents declined from early morning (35.7%) to evening/nighttime (11.4%). Circadian preference categories differed significantly by age, with early morning respondents significantly older. These preference categories did not differ significantly in terms of response time to the survey invitation or in the percentage of their favourite birds that were categorised as daytime birds. A total of 204 species were identified as favourite birds of which 34 species were mentioned by five or more respondents, with only two, the common crane and the Eurasian pygmy owl mentioned by more than 10% of respondents. The white stork was more popular with professionals than non-professionals and the swift less popular. A significant gender × circadian preference interaction was detected for the percentage of favourite birds categorised as daytime birds, with fewer daytime birds among early morning female recorders. The presented results are obviously of a correlative nature, but open the door for further, more advanced study and suggest there may be a need to investigate temporal biases when analysing citizen-based data.
观鸟是一项非常受欢迎且日益流行的休闲活动，由于鸟类在一天中的那个时段活动更为频繁，因此对鸟类的研究和观察在早晨更为普遍。我们研究的目的是找出观察者的昼夜偏好与其喜爱的鸟类物种之间是否存在关联，以及这种关联是否受到职业地位、年龄和性别等因素的影响。在一项电子邮件调查中，我们总共向433名波兰鸟类学家（专业人士）或观鸟者（非专业人士）询问了他们的晨型-夜型偏好（分为四类）以及喜爱的（开放式选择）鸟类物种，共收到143份回复。受访者的时间（昼夜）偏好从清晨（35.7%）到傍晚/夜间（11.4%）呈下降趋势。昼夜偏好类别在年龄上有显著差异，清晨型的受访者明显年龄更大。这些偏好类别在对调查邀请的回复时间或其喜爱的鸟类中被归类为白天活动鸟类的比例方面没有显著差异。总共确定了204种为最喜爱的鸟类，其中有34种被五名或更多受访者提及，只有两种，即灰鹤和欧亚雕鸮被超过10%的受访者提及。白鹳在专业人士中比非专业人士更受欢迎，而雨燕则不太受欢迎。在被归类为白天活动鸟类的最喜爱鸟类的比例方面，检测到显著的性别×昼夜偏好交互作用，清晨女性记录者记录的白天活动鸟类较少。所呈现的结果显然具有相关性，但为进一步的、更深入的研究打开了大门，并表明在分析基于公民的数据时可能需要调查时间偏差。
