Terminal flourishes but not trills differ between urban and rural Chaffinch song

Abstract

Animals can evade interference from anthropogenic noise using strategies such as shifting frequencies upwards or increasing the duration of their signals. In this study, we compared the time and frequency-related characteristics of songs and rain calls of Common Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs inhabiting rural forests and an urban park in Turkey. Most of the song phrases and rain calls did not differ in any of the characteristics measured between urban and rural Chaffinches but, contrary to our predictions, terminal flourish phrases of the songs had lower minimum frequencies and broader bandwidth in urban territories. These results suggest either that noise has limited effect on the Chaffinch vocalizations or that Chaffinch vocalizations in urban habitats are less well adapted for efficient transmission.