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Ecology

Birds sing at a higher pitch in urban noise

Nature volume 424, page 267 (2003)Cite this article

Great tits hit the high notes to ensure that their mating calls are heard above the city's din.

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Figure 1: Correlation between song frequency and ambient noise in urban great tits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Biology, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2300 RA, The Netherlands

    Hans Slabbekoorn & Margriet Peet

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  1. Hans Slabbekoorn
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  2. Margriet Peet
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Correspondence to Hans Slabbekoorn.

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Slabbekoorn, H., Peet, M. Birds sing at a higher pitch in urban noise. Nature 424, 267 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424267a

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