Researchers of the University of Life Sciences in Poznań investigated how the internal clock (chronotype) of bird watchers affects the type of animals they observe. The results of the analysis of whether there are more “larks” or “owls” among ornithologists appeared in the international journal PeerJ.

The research results show that most bird watchers qualified themselves as a type of morning observer – a lark (36%) with a rate for category of classic night owl 11%. Other cases are intermediate types, with no clear preferences for the time of day.
Participants in the study also indicated their favorite bird species. The list prepared in this way includes as many as 204 species, of which over 90 percent were birds considered as day birds. However, only two species were indicated as favorites by more than 10 percent survey participants; they were a crane and an Eurasian pygmy owl – the smallest Polish owl.