University of Utah: “Çağan Şekercioğlu was an ambitious, but perhaps naive graduate student when, 26 years ago, he embarked on a simple data-compilation project that would soon evolve into a massive career-defining achievement. With the help of countless students and volunteers, the University of Utah conservation biologist has finally released BIRDBASE, an encyclopedic dataset of traits covering all the bird species recognized by the world’s four major avian taxonomies. Described this week in a study published in the journal Scientific Data, the dataset covers 78 ecological traits, including conservation status, for 11,589 species of birds in 254 families. The main trait categories tracked are body mass; habitat; diet; nest type; clutch size; life history; elevational range; and movement strategy, that is whether and how they migrate. While some little-known species still have incomplete data, the dataset provides a foundation for ornithologists around the world to conduct new global analyses in ornithology, conservation biology and macroecology, including the links between bird species’ ecological traits and their risk of extinction, according to Şekercioğlu, a professor in the university’s School of Biological Sciences. He also hopes BIRDBASE will help other biologists win support for studying avian conservation.”

The study, titled “BIRDBASE: A Global Dataset of Avian Biogeography, Conservation, Ecology and Life History Traits**,”**appeared Sept. 30 in Scientific Data, published by Springer Nature. Co-authors include current and former graduate students and lab members Kyle Kittelberger, Flavio Mota, Amy Buxton, Nikolas Orton, Adara DeNiro, Evan Buechley, Joshua Horns, J. David Blount, Jason Socci and Montague Neate-Clegg.

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