Higher songs of city birds may not be an individual response to noise.

ABSTRACT: It has been observed in many songbird species that populations in noisy urban areas sing with a higher minimum frequency than do matched populations in quieter, less developed areas. However, why and how this divergence occurs is not yet understood. We experimentally tested whether chronic noise exposure during vocal learning results in songs with higher minimum frequencies in great tits (Parus major), the first species for which a correlation between anthropogenic noise and song frequency was observed. We also tested vocal plasticity of adult great tits in response to changing background noise levels by measuring song frequency and amplitude as we changed noise conditions. We show that noise exposure during ontogeny did not result in songs with higher minimum frequencies. In additi

SUBMITTER: Zollinger SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5563796 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature