How to use it
The dataset loads automatically once you close this panel. Every
bubble is a species — size is always body mass
(larger = heavier bird, on an area-proportional scale). Choose what
X axis, Y axis, and
Color by mean, or click one of the
story presets above the controls for a hand-picked
view.
Hovering a bubble shows its name. To find a specific species, type
its common or scientific name into the search box
beside the chart — picking a match highlights its bubble with a ring
and opens a detail card below the search box with its current X/Y/
color values. Click a bubble, or the photo/name in its detail card,
to open the full species profile.
Some axes are categorical (primary diet, habitat, taxonomic order,
migration status). Pick a categorical field for both axes
and bubbles pack into a grid of cells — a "who eats what, and
where" matrix. Pick one categorical and one numeric field for a
beeswarm-style column layout. Two numeric fields give a classic
scatter. Bubbles gently push apart when they'd overlap, so a
crowded cluster can spill slightly past its exact position — that's
expected, not an error.
Species missing the data needed for the current X or Y are hidden,
with a count shown above the chart. To keep colors readable, diet,
habitat, and order are grouped into their four most common values
plus "Other" — search for a species and check its detail card to see
its exact value regardless of how it's grouped.
About this data
The species data on this page comes from
BIRDBASE, a peer-reviewed global dataset of avian
biogeography, conservation, ecology, and life-history traits —
78 traits for 11,589 species across 254 families, synthesized from
367 published sources spanning 1957–2025.
Şekercioğlu, Ç.H., Kittelberger, K.D., Mota, F.M.M. et al.
BIRDBASE: A Global Dataset of Avian Biogeography, Conservation,
Ecology and Life History Traits. Scientific Data (2025).
This page is a downstream retelling of that dataset, not a
replacement for the source — see the full
paper on nature.com
for methodology, sources, and citation details.
