Learning to cope: vocal adjustment to urban noise is correlated with prior experience in black-capped chickadees

Abstract

Urban noise can interfere with avian communication through masking, but birds can reduce this interference by altering their vocalizations. Although several experimental studies indicate that birds can rapidly change their vocalizations in response to sudden increases in ambient noise, none have investigated whether this is a learned response that depends on previous exposure. Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) change the frequency of their songs in response to both fluctuating traffic noise and experimental noise. We investigated whether these responses to fluctuating noise depend on familiarity with noise. We confirmed that males in noisy areas sang higher-frequency songs than those in quiet areas, but found that only males in already-noisy territories shifted songs upwards in immediate response to experimental noise. Unexpectedly, males in more quiet territories shifted songs downwards in response to experimental noise. These results suggest that chickadees may require prior experience with fluctuating noise to adjust vocalizations in such a way as to minimize masking. Thus, learning to cope may be an important part of adjusting to acoustic life in the city.

Suffering in receivers: Negative effects of noise persist regardless of experience in female anurans

“…Detrimental effects of noise, however, can be mitigated by behavioural and phenotypic plasticity of animals against noise (Lampe, Reinhold, & Schmoll, ; LaZerte, Slabbekoorn, & Otter, ). Indeed, there is plenty of evidence showing that signallers can reduce negative effects of acoustic masking by modifying their signal properties such as frequencies (Cunnington & Fahrig, ; Francis, Ortega, & Cruz, ; Patricelli & Blickley, ; Slabbekoorn & Peet, ) or amplitudes (i.e., the Lombard effects) (Halfwerk, Lea, Guerra, Page, & Ryan, ; Zollinger & Brumm, ).…”

“…Indeed, there is plenty of evidence showing that signallers can reduce negative effects of acoustic masking by modifying their signal properties such as frequencies (Cunnington & Fahrig, ; Francis, Ortega, & Cruz, ; Patricelli & Blickley, ; Slabbekoorn & Peet, ) or amplitudes (i.e., the Lombard effects) (Halfwerk, Lea, Guerra, Page, & Ryan, ; Zollinger & Brumm, ). Moreover, recent studies have shown that prior experience with noise can be related to such modifiability in signallers (Gentry, Derryberry, Danner, Danner, & Luther, ; LaZerte et al., ). Although evidence of signaller responses to noise is quite common (Slabbekoorn, ), behavioural responses of signal receivers has received comparably very little attention (but see Kleist, Guralnick, Cruz, & Francis, ; Luther, Danner, Danner, Gentry, & Derryberry, ) and, to our knowledge, only one study has investigated behavioural plasticity in receivers in response to noise (Halfwerk, Bot, & Slabbekoorn, ).…”

“…Anurans have cosmopolitan distributions, and female phonotaxis in anurans is directly relevant to their reproductive success (Bee, ; Bee, Kozich, Blackwell, & Carl Gerhardt, ; Cunnington & Fahrig, ; Lee, Ward, Vélez, Micheyl, & Bee, ; Moreno‐Gómez, Sueur, Soto‐Gamboa, & Penna, ). Based on previous studies (LaZerte et al., ; Luo et al., ), the experiment was designed as follows: gravid females were collected from quiet and traffic noise‐exposed wetlands. We then compared their phonotaxis towards males’ advertisement calls under three acoustic manipulations: (1) noise that spectrally overlaps with males’ calls, (2) noise that is within their hearing range but does not spectrally overlap with males’ calls and (3) silent control sound.…”

A field test of the audibility of urban versus rural songs in mountain chickadees

“…Previously, we found evidence that black-capped chickadees from noisy areas seem to be better in using immediate plasticity to adjust signals to minimize masking than are males from quiet areas (LaZerte et al, 2016). Previously, we found evidence that black-capped chickadees from noisy areas seem to be better in using immediate plasticity to adjust signals to minimize masking than are males from quiet areas (LaZerte et al, 2016).…”

“…This highlights the importance again of considering context and the effect that long-term familiarity with anthropogenic noise may have on free-ranging animals (Gentry et al, 2017;Harding et al, 2018;LaZerte et al, 2016;Nedelec et al, 2016). Further laboratory and field studies of receiver detection and discrimination are needed to help determine whether this is the result of improved perception in noisy habitats by urban receivers or increased aggression in urban habitats, or some combination of the two.…”