Birds sing a ‘sexier’ tune during lockdown, study says
A new study found that sparrows in San Francisco altered their birdsong to sound more appealing to mates after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the city.
The study, published Thursday in peer-reviewed journal Science, analyzed the birdsong of the whitecrowned sparrow, a bird common in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Amid the din of traffic and other noise in metropolitan areas, birds sing much more loudly to be heard by potential mates. This is a phenomenon known as the Lombard effect.
Though male birds aren’t drowned out, their trill cannot reach a wide range, nor is it appealing to prospective partners.
When the pandemic hit – and vehicle traffic slowed down – researchers found that noise levels in San Francisco and other urban parts of the Bay Area reduced by nearly 50%. The shutdown, they wrote, effectively reversed “more than a half-century rise in noise pollution.”
The birds, as a result, began singing more quietly, hitting lower notes and improving their vocal performance. Elizabeth Derryberry, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Tennessee, told Agence France-Presse that the birds “sounded better, they sounded sexier” to mates.
Because of the reduced noise levels, the sparrow’s songs could be heard from a farther distance.
This is one of the many ways in which animals globally have adapted their habits during the pandemic. When people stay home, animals are able to roam around freely and in some cases, even rest on manmade roads.
The researchers found the sparrows’ ability to adapt their birdsong bodes well for animal survival in urban areas, showing the potential for “demographic recovery and higher species diversity.”