Marketing birds: The traits birdwatching tourism companies highlight in Costa Rican tour itineraries

Birdwatching tourism has blossomed into a profitable industry, promoting peoples’ connections to nature and contributing billions of dollars to local economies annually. Understanding which species birdwatchers value and why could help distinguish flagship species for ecotourism and conservation marketing. Here, we draw from ecological, psychological, and economic perspectives to test hypotheses about which species’ attributes (i.e., traits) are most prevalent among birds marketed to birdwatchers. To do so, we implemented a multi-year course-based undergraduate research experience to quantify how often >750 bird species appeared in >150 itineraries describing tours traversing Costa Rica. We then associated itinerary mentions with data on species’ appearances, vocalizations, distributions, conservation statuses, and behaviors. We found that larger, more attractive species appeared frequently in trip itineraries, but species with pleasing vocalizations did not. We also found that ra..., , # Marketing birds: The traits birdwatching tourism companies highlight in Costa Rican tour itineraries Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.c866t1gjh](10.5061/dryad.c866t1gjh) ## Description of the data and file structure We combined published functional trait databases with data collected from a multi-year course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) to predict which of >750 bird species were most likely to appear in >150 tour itineraries marketed to birdwatchers visiting Costa Rica. See methods from associated paper. ### Files and variables #### File: BirdwatchingTraitDatabase_Dryad.csv **Description:** Trait database. ##### Variables * Order: Taxonomic order * Family: Taxonomic family * ScientifcName: Latin name (genus, species) * CommonName: English name * included2020: Number of itineraries in which the species was present from the 2020 class * notincluded2020: Number of itineraries in which the species was not present from the 2020 class * fraction2020: Proportion of iti...,