The impact of anthropogenic noise on individual identification via female song in Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus)

Abstract

When anthropogenic noise occurs simultaneously with an acoustic signal or cue, it can be difficult for an animal to interpret the information encoded within vocalizations. However, limited research has focused on how anthropogenic noise affects the identification of acoustic communication signals. In songbirds, research has also shown that black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) will shift the pitch and change the frequency at which they sing in the presence of anthropogenic, and experimental noise. Black-capped chickadees produce several vocalizations; their fee-bee song is used for mate attraction and territorial defence, and contains information about dominance hierarchy and native geographic location. Previously, we demonstrated that black-capped chickadees can discriminate between individual female chickadees via their fee-bee songs. Here we used an operant discrimination go/no-go paradigm to discern whether the ability to discriminate between individual female chickadees by their song would be impacted by differing levels of anthropogenic noise. Following discrimination training, two levels of anthropogenic noise (low: 40 dB SPL; high: 75 dB SPL) were played with stimuli to determine how anthropogenic noise would impact discrimination. Results showed that even with low-level noise (40 dB SPL) performance decreased and high-level (75 dB SPL) noise was increasingly detrimental to discrimination. We learned that perception of fee-bee songs does change in the presence of anthropogenic noise such that birds take significantly longer to learn to discriminate between females, but birds were able to generalize responding after learning the discrimination. These results add to the growing literature underscoring the impact of human-made noise on avian wildlife, specifically the impact on perception of auditory signals.

Traffic noise inhibits inhibitory control in wild-caught songbirds

“…For example, song learning is generally thought to be a different cognitive module from the sorts of foraging tasks described here, 68 but is also known to be impacted by anthropogenic noise pollution. 18 , 69 Similarly, learning to discriminate among auditory stimuli, such as contact calls 70 or sexual signals, 71 are further examples of the potential for noise to disrupt a variety of cognitive processes in animals.…”

Experimental playback of urban noise does not affect cognitive performance in captive Australian magpies

“…Perhaps surprisingly, urban noise also affects bill colour, making bills less bright or turn them redder, which has important consequences for social interactions and mate choice (Daria et al, 2022). Furthermore, noise can also make it more di cult for black-capped chickadees Poecile atricapillus to learn to discriminate conspeci c songs (Montenegro et al, 2021;Osbrink et al, 2021).…”