Yup! Winner :)

Puffleg is a great guess and totally the right region... But it isn't right. The tail is key too :)

Overall, a super fun experience and so lucky to work with my amazing collaborators: @ornithoale.bsky.social who inspired a lot of this work as well as @katherinelauck.bsky.social and Julian Tattoni who TAed the class and helped create this course-based research experience :)

Finally, larger, more attractive species were consistently more likely to be marketed.

This is despite prior work arguing that an emphasis on novel birds translates into dedicated birdwatchers preferring dull species.

Dedicated birdwatchers may value beauty in birds, just like everyone else.

Second, we were surprised that regularly observed species were more likely to be mentioned in trip itineraries.

Maybe tour operators are balancing novelty with the risk of disappointing clients when they inevitably fail to encounter rare species?

Ok, so what did we find?

First, tour operators recognized that birdwatchers value novelty above all else. Range-restricted species were ten times more likely to appear in trip itineraries than cosmopolitan species.

The most unique part: this was a multi-year class project! So fun to have undergrads help us collect the data, form their own questions, present posters, and then, eventually, have it turn into a published product!

(photos are example student posters)

Just found out Karen's had >50 applications come in during the first four days.

Completely unprecedented in all the hiring we've ever done.

I guess this shows the state of the wildlife job market right now. Really sad.