Are Lay People Able to Estimate Breeding Bird Diversity?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The experience of nature is different for everybody. Some studies used perceived biodiversity as an approach to measure the biodiversity of a location. This present study assessed if laypeople could estimate bird species richness at specific places in southwest Germany. We compared their assessment with bird counts of professional ornithologists and data from the citizen science platform Ornitho (Germany). With a survey, laypeople were asked about the bird diversity they perceived at a given place. About 30 people were surveyed per place, summing up a total of 1184 respondents. The results show that laypeople have a generally good assessment of the bird species richness in recreational areas, correlating with the data of professionals. But since the surveys often were done in the afternoon and their assessment coincided with the professional data of morning and total counts, laypeople seem to make their assessment of biodiversity due to other factors than actual birds seen. The counts of professional ornithologists and citizen science data did not correlate; therefore, we suggest carrying out own professional surveys if possible. ABSTRACT: Studies about biodiversity and well-being used different approaches to assess biodiversity, e.g., scientific counts and censuses or perceived biodiversity estimated by the respondents. Here, we assessed whether laypeople could estimate the breeding bird diversity or species richness at specific places. For comparison, we carried out bird censuses with standard methods of professional ornithologists and used citizen science data from the internet platform Ornitho (Germany). Lay people from the public (1184 respondents) were surveyed between May and July 2022 at 40 different places in southwest Germany between Rottenburg/Tübingen and Stuttgart following the catchment of the river Neckar (30 people surveyed per place). People were asked to estimate the bird species richness/diversity at this current place. Here, we show that the data from the citizen science platform does not correlate with the professional census counts nor with the perceived species richness of laypeople. Laypeople have a generally good assessment of the bird species richness, correlating with the data of professionals (r = 0.325, p = 0.041). On average, the number of species assessed by laypeople lies in between the values of the professional morning and afternoon census. People were most often surveyed in the afternoon; therefore, their assessment must be done on other factors than actual birds present. This result is valuable for future studies on the connection between biodiversity and well-being.