Every morning, at this time of year, a red-winged blackbird greets me as I walk down the street. He’s become a familiar sight and sound, and I watch for the flash of black and red that tells me he’s landed on a branch above my head and is about to speak up.

But how many less flashy birds do I miss while looking for those blackbirds? Chances are, quite a few — just like the scientific community, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The study, by a team of researchers from the University of Toledo and Ohio University, examined 55 years’ worth of scientific papers on North American birds and found they show a dramatic bias toward more noticeable species — those who are more aesthetically pleasing or “flashy,” have wider breeding ranges, and whose ranges overlap with nearby universities.

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And yes, that includes red-winged blackbirds. Of the more than 27,000 published papers analyzed for this study, red-winged blackbirds were the second-most researched species, with an astonishing 499 publications. That’s second only to the bright blue-and-white tree swallow, the subject of 597 papers (perhaps because their adaptability to backyard nest boxes makes them so easy to study).

That leaves many species — the “drab” ones, as the study puts it, and the ones with smaller ranges — understudied, if studied at all. A rather plain but sweet-looking species called the Philadelphia vireo wasn’t studied a single time during this 55-year period, according to the analysis.

This bias can create a negative feedback loop, the paper warns, where the most-studied species keep getting studied and the “drab” species fade into the background, forgotten by both science and the public. The “lack of research on visually unremarkable and unfamiliar birds may ultimately result in their ‘societal extinction,’” researchers warn.

I reached out to lead author Silas Fischer, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toledo, to learn more about this bias, how it affects conservation, and what other researchers can do to help correct it.

The following has been edited slightly for style and brevity.

Is a possible interpretation of this paper, “In praise of boring birds?”

I suppose part of our findings could be interpreted that way, although I wouldn’t use the word “boring” to describe those species! What some of these drably plumaged species lack in color and plumage contrast, they make up for in personality.

What was the origin story for this paper? I noticed that many of your previous papers cover the gray vireo, which your new study........

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