- Sep 12, 2008
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due to noise pollution, songbirds sing differently in urban areas
One mistake in the article is that songbirds sing to attract mates. Actually they sing to mark territory. An important distinction. It might be urban birds just need to sound more aggressive to keep their territories.
One mistake in the article is that songbirds sing to attract mates. Actually they sing to mark territory. An important distinction. It might be urban birds just need to sound more aggressive to keep their territories.
Is that hip-hop coming from the treetop? Scientists listening to great tits think so. According to a new study published in Current Biology, birds in urban areas tweet more brashly, using staccato notes at a higher pitch, than forest dwellers. Researchers believe this to be the equivalent of avian hip-hop, which birds may have adapted so they can hear each other above the din of the city.
Researchers at the University of Leiden in Norway monitored great titsa common European songbirdin 10 cities, including Amsterdam, London and Prague. In all 10 places, they found that city birds sing faster, start their phrases with shorter notes and leave out lower frequency notes compared to individuals of the same species living in surrounding forests.
The sounds of city and country great tits are so different that the researchers believe that eventually the birds could divide into two distinct species. But other birds might not be so lucky, says biologist Hans Slabbekoorn, who led the study. Birds use song to attract mates and define territory. If other species can't adapt to be heard above the noise, they could disappear from cities altogether.