City birds tend to be angrier than rural ones!
July 17, 2016 16:41
Birds that live in suburban areas tend to be angrier, and show more aggression than their rural counterparts, according to a new study that sheds light on the effects of human population expansion on wildlife.
"A possible reason for this is that these birds have less space but better resources to defend," said Scott Davies, a postdoctoral associate at Virginia Tech. "Living near humans provides better food and shelter, but it also means more competition for these limited resources," he said.
Researchers measured territorial aggression in 35 urban and 38 rural male song sparrows at three rural and three urban sites in the US last year. They played a recording of a male song sparrow and observed how the territory-holding birds responded to a simulated intrusion from a neighbour.
Campus birds showed a higher level of aggression: they approached and remained near the speaker, flapped their wings furiously, engaged in loud singing and then began to produce 'soft song' - a term that researchers use to describe the quiet, garbled noise that a bird makes, which is predictive of an impending attack.
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