Change Your Tune

Birdsong is part of the soundtrack to our towns and cities, but traffic, sirens and other human made noise can make it harder for birds to communicate.

In this video, University of Sheffield undergraduate bioscience students investigate how birds respond to the noise of urban life. They compare bird calls in different parts of Sheffield, looking at the frequencies birds use and how their behaviour changes when loud sounds, such as an ambulance siren, interrupt their calls.

Dr Alexandra Jebb de Calais, Research Associate in Behavioural Ecology at the University of Sheffield, explains why birdsong is so important and how birds can adjust the way they communicate when their environment becomes noisy.

By comparing birds living in busier urban areas with those in quieter surroundings, the students explore whether city birds are changing their tune to make themselves heard and what growing levels of human noise could mean for the wildlife living alongside us.