Aircraft events correspond with vocal behavior in a passerine

Abstract

Airports can affect birds by hindering acoustic communication. Here, we investigated the impacts of aircraft events on vocal behavior in wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) breeding one mile from an airport in Ithaca, NY, USA. We identified the number of wood thrush songs between 0500 and 0800 h at various distances from the airport and on days with various morning flight schedules. We also analyzed the number of sites from which birds sang during the peak of aircraft events (proxy of number of wood thrush). We found that birds sang more from 0600 to 0640 h when there were aircraft events during this period. This increased vocal behavior is likely explained by increased song output per individual wood thrush, rather than more wood thrush vocalizing. Increased song rate may negatively affect wood thrush fitness through increased energetic demands and/or time tradeoffs with other important behaviors, such as foraging. Identifying the noise thresholds associated with fitness costs (if any) and how different behavioral strategies (i.e. changing the pattern of vocalizations) may allow individuals to evade these costs would be useful for establishing conservation policy in breeding habitats used by passerines, such as the wood thrush.