Variation in Diurnal Patterns of Singing Activity Between Urban and Rural Great Tits

Abstract

Human settlements and activities alter the natural environment acoustically and visually. Traffic noise and street lights are two of the most prominent pollutants which may affect animal activity patterns. Birds in urban areas have been reported to sing nocturnally and to have an earlier dawn chorus compared to their rural counterparts. However, few studies have measured whether singing more at night or earlier in the morning means singing less during daytime. It is therefore unclear whether they shift or extend or overall increase their activities. Furthermore, few studies on anthropogenic noise-related shifts in song activity replicated well at the habitat level. We recorded singing activity in urban and rural great tits (Parus major) for 24 h and sampled 11 urban-rural pairs of territories, inside and outside 11 different cities across the Netherlands. We found that urban birds sing earlier during the day, have similar singing effort in the dawn chorus, but sing less than rural birds during the rest of the day. The shift in timing between urban and rural birds was 22 min on average and resulted in more songs for urban birds during a less noisy time of the day. The lower singing activity over the day made that urban birds sang less when it was more noisy compared to the natural rhythm of rural great tits. We currently lack insight into whether these differences yield any positive or negative fitness consequences, but it is a clear case of how anthropogenic effects on the natural environment influence fundamental aspects of daily life in the animal communities with which we share the urban habitat.

Analysis of Soundscapes as an Ecological Tool

“…7.11b;Sáncez-Pérez et al 2013;Vidović et al 2017). Birds near international airports in Spain, for example, were found to advance their dawn chorus to reduce overlap with aircraft sound (Gil et al 2015), which is a common response to noise for urban species (Bermúdez-Cuamatzin et al 2020). However, common chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita) near airports in the UK and the Netherlands were found to sing songs with a lower maximum and peak frequency than conspecifics in nearby control areas, thus resulting in an increased overlap with aircraft sound (Wolfenden et al 2019).…”

Natural Patterns in the Dawn and Dusk Choruses of a Neotropical Songbird in Relation to an Urban Sound Environment

“…Among the reported structural changes is the increase in song frequency (e.g., [14,[18][19][20]; but see [21,22]), the increase in the sound pressure level (loudness) of the song [17,23,24], and changes in the repertoire [15,25]; but see [22]. The most frequently reported temporal changes are those related to schedule adjustment that allows birds to avoid the noisiest periods [26,27]; but see [28][29][30] in relation to the effect of light pollution timing on bird songs.…”

The singing activity of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) under traffic noise around highways

“…City road networks have become suitable study sites for assessing the impact of traffic noise on birds, which to date has been assessed mainly in big cities but not near highways outside of cities. Bermúdez-Cuamatzin et al (2020) have shown conclusively that Great Tits (Parus major) in urban and rural areas differ in the timing of their singing activity: the dawn chorus starts earlier in the city, and thereafter there is less singing activity in urban streets than in rural woodland. This confirms the early rise in cities, as reported for many bird species and sometimes attributed to traffic noise during daytime, to artificial light at night, or both.…”