Blackbirds sing higher-pitched songs in cities: adaptation to habitat acoustics or side-effect of urbanization?

By E. Nemeth, H. Brumm. 2009

251 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Developmental Biology, Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b89070430ca6af8b84bd4e7dbd5a43b9ea3d0038

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In Developmental Biology

In Ecology

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Citations in the corpus

Artificial night lighting rather than traffic noise affects the daily timing of dawn and dusk singing in common European songbirds (2014, background): “2011; Nemeth and Brumm 2009), but analyzing such effects is beyond the scope of this study.”
Which birds adjust the frequency of vocalizations in urban noise (2010, background): “For example, it has been suggested that the frequency of blackbird, Turdus merula, songs in cities might be influenced by higher densities of birds, which could translate into more aroused singing during social interactions and an increase in the frequency of songs (Nemeth & Brumm 2009).”
Staying tuned: grasshoppers from noisy roadside habitats produce courtship signals with elevated frequency components (2012, background): “Functional Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society types, as compared to conspecifics from rural habitats (Slabbekoorn & Peet 2003; Nemeth & Brumm 2009; Dowling, Luther & Marra 2011).”
Comparative effects of urban development and anthropogenic noise on bird songs (2012, background): “Numerous observational and experimental studies have shown that several bird species sing with a higher minimum frequency when low-frequency ambient noise is present (Slabbekoorn and Peet 2003; Fernández-Juricic et al. 2005; Wood and Yezerinac 2006; Nemeth and Brumm 2009; Bermúdez-Caumatzin et al. 2”
On the relationship between, and measurement of, amplitude and frequency in birdsong (2012, background): “…because of selection for higher-pitched songs in the face of low-frequency urban noise, or because birds can avoid masking directly by shifting to higher-frequency sounds (Fernández-Juricic et al. 2005; Slabbekoorn & den Boer-Visser 2006; Nemeth & Brumm 2009; Gross et al. 2010; Potvin et al. 2010).”
Animal Communication and Noise (2013, background): “Common blackbirds in the city of Vienna, Austria, sing shorter, higher frequency songs with shorter between-song intervals, while in a quiet forest outside Vienna they sing slower, lower frequency songs with longer between-song intervals (Nemeth and Brumm 2009).”
Fitness costs as well as benefits are important when considering responses to anthropogenic noise (2014, background): “More recent work has begun to test these perceived benefits, by calculating the increases in potential communication distances (e.g., Nemeth and Brumm 2009) and assessing reproductive output (Halfwerk, Bot, et al.”
Avian soundscapes and cognitive landscapes: theory, application and ecological perspectives (2011, background): “In fact, many studies have focused on the effect on wildlife of the noise caused by traffic and cities, demonstrating altered behavior in different species (Rheindt 2003; Slabbekoorn and Peet 2003; Dooling and Popper 2007; Nemeth and Brumm 2009).”