Don't be afraid to say ‘I study birds'

Abstract

Whenever I’m involved with outreach programs with birds I’m reminded of something we ornithologists take for granted: Almost everyone likes birds. Even to people who pay minimal attention, birds are beautiful, familiar, tangible connections to the natural world. Andmany people paymore than minimal attention, as revealed by the market for birdfeeders and the success of citizen science with birds.This connection between humans and birds puts ornithologists, and journals likeThe Condor: Ornithological Applications, in a unique position compared with other fields. In particular, we have amuch easier timemaking a relevant connection from our work with birds to something affecting human well-being. In many cases, such as with particularly charismatic species like California Condors or Whooping Cranes or Bald Eagles or Wild Turkeys, the birds themselves are part of our cultural heritage. People care about them very directly. In other cases, bird species become emblematic of a unique setting, such as Golden-cheeked Warblers and the Texas Hill Country. Or birds can make us uncomfortable because they remind us of the consequences of modern life, as with the widely disseminated images of oiled Brown Pelicans following the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Those images resonated because putting a face—a bird’s face—on the tragedy made it more real. Sorry malacologists and cryptogamists, but you couldn’t do it with clams and algae. Because people care about birds, they will understand you, and they will pay attention, when you say ‘I study birds.’ This statement will start a conversation, and in the proper context will give you the opportunity to share something important about birds. That conversation might go in a different direction if it is with your neighbor than if it is with a policymaker, but birds are your foot in the door. What does any of this have to do with the journals where we publish our science? Bird journals have a unique place because they reach a broad swath of people interested in birds, from relatively few casual birders to a larger number of serious amateur ornithologists to most professional ornithologists. If you want your work to be read by people who know and care about birds, publish it in a bird journal.We’ve all seen papers in general journals that claim to say something about birds but obviously weren’t written or evaluated by anyone who really knew birds.On the other hand, if you want the world to know that your paper was vetted by ornithologists, publish it in a bird journal. Your paper in The Condor: Ornithological Applications is not destined for obscurity; the journal reaches professionals who make decisions aboutmanaging birds. Science appearing inCondor becomes part of a growing body of important work relevant for bird conservation and management. Just as you get direct engagement in conversationwhen you say ‘I study birds,’ your paper in Condor also engages you directly with the people who are most likely to care about your results. As we move into 2015, we at Condor are enhancing our effort to disseminate the science we publish. We have new outreach staff handling press releases and social media, targeting ornithologists, scientists in general, and the public. In 2014 we promoted several papers that brought important issues to the public’s attention, hopefully to the benefit of birds (e.g., Haig et al. 2014, Loss et al. 2014). For 2015 we have more resources to put to this task. Some of our papers will undoubtedly be influential in policy decisions (although the journal does not take advocacy positions—see Walters et al. 2014). We also have the capability of moving important papers to immediate open access to enhance their dissemination outside of academic libraries. We’ve opened access to papers on work outside North America to reach more ornithologists who lack access to academic libraries (e.g., Dias et al. 2014). We also opened access to North American work with highly viewed abstracts (e.g., Robertson et al. 2012). We are doing everything we can to build upon the journal’s 115-year history to establish our position as the leading journal for applied ornithology. We have the great privilege of working with birds. Let’s take advantage of our unique position by saying ‘I study birds’ and by disseminating our science through ornithological journals.