<p>Conservation frameworks are increasingly integrating scientific approaches with Indigenous knowledge to address biodiversity loss. Though Indigenous communities make up only 5% of the global population, they play an essential role in conservation. Within this paradigm, cognitive salience, people’s awareness of local species, offers insights that help decision-makers design conservation strategies tailored to specific communities and ecosystems. However, in many regions, this information is scarce. To explore cognitive salience's role in conservation, we investigated the link between bird salience and conservation interest among Ethiopia’s Indigenous Nuer people. Using bird survey data, focus group discussions, and household interviews, we explored how bird salience associates with conservation interest. Our findings reveal that birds hold high cognitive salience among the Nuer, as evidenced by their rich knowledge of folk names, perceptions, and cultural beliefs associated with avian species. A significant positive correlation was observed between an index of cognitive salience and expressed conservation interest (r = 0.53, df = 52; <i>p</i> = 0.0001), indicating species with higher salience would be more likely to gain conservation attention. Furthermore, this index correlated positively with both relative abundance and the aesthetic value of bird species, suggesting that more prevalent and culturally significant species tend to attract higher conservation interest. Given that highly salient species garner greater conservation interest, raising awareness of less salient but threatened or rare species could enhance local engagement to mitigate the risk of local extinctions. This highlights the importance of Indigenous perspectives in addressing contemporary conservation challenges and argues that integrating these interconnected human-nature relationships in conservation is vital for effective, culturally informed biodiversity conservation outcomes.</p>