How City Noise Is Reshaping Birdsongs


	How City Noise Is Reshaping Birdsongs

chestnut501

10-28-2009 10:38 AM

206 views

tags:

science, ornitholgy, birds, songs, adaptation, evolution, sparrows

chestnut501 says:

Urban bird dwellers change their song over time to help the them be heard over the big city noises.

3 Comments |

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10-28-2009 10:23 PM

artdawgs

Great post Chestnut.
It was a real tweet.

11-1-2009 6:13 AM

celestialdancer

Having trouble posting comments...

11-1-2009 8:21 AM

chestnut501

celestialdancer, You might try posting a clip about it, ask if anyone else is having a problem and maybe someone will know something that can help. Pose the question as your title and then clip a picture of something so it will post.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/462c2c5b-7895-4d7f-8ad9-3c8aa77014cd/152EFE9A-4FFF-4C60-ACB9-BB246D4D6F1D/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22" style="font-size: 11px;">www.scientificamerican.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22">Did you know birds <A href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-listen-to-birds ">sing in  dialect</A>? They do. The song of a great tit from the countryside is a  far cry from that of his city cousin. And some song dialects can change  nearly as fast as human slang—the Indigo Bunting changes tune from  year to year.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22">To investigate the <A href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=57FAEA67-E7F2-99DF-3A6A949BB2B94ADE ">cultural  evolution of such songs</A> researchers have recently completed a study  of adjacent White-crowned sparrow dialects from 1969 to 1998 in San  Francisco.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22">  ornithologist Luis Baptista</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22"> hypothesized  that the pressures of urban noise would tend, over time, to eliminate  the lower ranges of the bird's song and cause the sparrows to <A href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-language-of-song-an-i ">prefer  to learn songs</A> at the higher range. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3">And that's exactly what they  found. </FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <A href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vocal-learning-similar-in">Much like  humans</A>, the sparrows seem to be raising their voices to be heard over  the sounds of the city.</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=how-city-noise-is-shaping-bird-song-09-10-22">It seems that the need for  effective communication in the local environment is the fundamental  driver of cultural traits that are passed on from one generation to  the next.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/152EFE9A-4FFF-4C60-ACB9-BB246D4D6F1D/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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