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Birds advance their dawn chorus near airports

Loud noise produced in urban habitats disturbs the normal activity of animals. As a consequence, birds have developed a series of strategies to be able to communicate when noise levels are high, such as singing louder or at a higher pitch. But some human areas are so noisy that birds can do little to be able to hear each other. This is the case of airports. In this study we found that birds living near airports advance their dawn chorus to reduce the amount of time they spent singing while planes fly overhead. We found that birds that normally sing very early, and are therefore less affected by human rush hour, advanced their song chorus to a lesser extent than late birds, whose singing period tends to happen when airports reach their peak of activity.

 

 

 

Pictures

  • Plane flying over the Delta del Llobregat Natural Prak
  • Serin singing