Urban Noise Affects Bird Songs
A recent issue of Nature reported that birds alter their songs to account for urban noise, singing more loudly or at different frequencies to ensure they can be heard.
The research was done by Hans Slabbekoorn and Margriet Peet in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. They studied the Great Tit, which is related to the Chickadee. They found that as traffic noise grew louder in Leiden, the Great Tits would not only sing more loudly to compensate - but would also sing at higher frequencies. The noise would drown out their lower notes, but the birds' higher notes would soar above the noise and allow them to stake out their territory.
Other research on the singing of birds has found that birds do sing more and more loudly when there is background noise, to make sure that rivals can hear their tunes and females can find them. Also, in dense forests where it is hard for sound to carry, birds sing simple songs that can be identified. In more wide open meadows, where the song carries more clearly, birds begin to elaborate on their songs, adding extra notes and nuances.
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