Biodiversité

Reconnaissez-vous le chant de la mésange ou du merle ? Celui de la chouette effraie ou celui du faucon crécerelle ? Tendez l'oreille, car les oiseaux ont beaucoup à nous apprendre. Rencontre avec Philippe Dubois, ornithologue, qui aimerait être un oiseau, et nous parle de son travail.

Ces nuisances affecteraient particulièrement les oiseaux au cerveau très développé et dont les capacités cognitives sont essentielles pour s'orienter.

Actions taken to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have conspicuously reduced motor vehicle traffic, potentially alleviating auditory pressures on animals that rely on sound for survival and reproduction. Here we evaluate whether a common songbird responsively exploited newly emptied acoustic space by comparing soundscapes and songs across the San Francisco Bay Area prior to and during the recent statewide shutdown. We show that noise levels in urban areas were dramatically lower during the shutdown, characteristic of traffic in the mid-1950s. We also show that birds responded by producing higher performance songs at lower amplitudes, effectively maximizing communication distance and salience.