{"id":12062,"date":"2025-03-27T08:58:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T13:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&#038;p=12062"},"modified":"2025-03-27T08:58:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T13:58:55","slug":"why-do-birds-make-so-many-different-sounds-a-new-uw-madison-study-gets-at-the-underlying-factors","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/why-do-birds-make-so-many-different-sounds-a-new-uw-madison-study-gets-at-the-underlying-factors\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do birds make so many different sounds? A new UW\u2013Madison study gets at the underlying factors"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12064\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12064\" style=\"width: 775px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/03\/MAD_bird-calls_rspb.2024.291.issue-2034.largecover-775x517-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/03\/MAD_bird-calls_rspb.2024.291.issue-2034.largecover-775x517-1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of white-rumped shama bird: Ecological and evolutionary traits like body mass and beak size influence the vocalization frequency of bird species, such as the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), in Chikkamagaluru, India. Photo by Madhu Venkatesh, Wildlife Conservation Action Team\" width=\"775\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/03\/MAD_bird-calls_rspb.2024.291.issue-2034.largecover-775x517-1.jpg 775w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/03\/MAD_bird-calls_rspb.2024.291.issue-2034.largecover-775x517-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/03\/MAD_bird-calls_rspb.2024.291.issue-2034.largecover-775x517-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 775px) 100vw, 775px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ecological and evolutionary traits like body mass and beak size influence the vocalization frequency of bird species, such as the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), in Chikkamagaluru, India. Photo by Madhu Venkatesh, Wildlife Conservation Action Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Birds make sounds to communicate, whether to find a potential mate, ward off predators, or just sing for pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>But the conditions that contribute to the immense diversity of the sounds they make are not well understood. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison have conducted the first-ever global study of the factors that influence bird sounds, using more than 100,000 audio recordings from around the world. The new study, recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, revealed insightful patterns for why birds make certain noises and at what frequency.<\/p>\n<p>Hypotheses about the role of habitat, geography, body size and beak shape in forming bird sounds have been tested on small scales before. But H.S. Sathya Chandra Sagar, a UW\u2013Madison doctoral student who works with Professor Zuzana Bu\u0159ivalov\u00e1 in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, wanted to see if they held up on a global scale.<\/p>\n<p>Sagar analyzed audio recordings of bird sounds taken by people around the world and submitted to a bird-watching repository called xeno-canto. The analyzed recordings represented 77% of known bird species.<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2019s major takeaways included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bird species\u2019 habitat influences the frequency of the sound they may make, in unexpected ways.<\/strong> For example, in ecosystems with a lot of rushing water there is a constant level of white noise occurring at a lower frequency. In such cases, researchers found that birds tend to make sounds of higher frequency, likely so they wouldn\u2019t be drowned out by the water.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bird species living at the same latitudes make similar sounds.<\/strong> Observing this pattern at a global scale is an important piece of the puzzle in the evolutionary story of bird sounds. It could inspire further research into the aspects of geographic location that influence bird sounds.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A bird\u2019s beak shape and body mass are important.<\/strong> Generally, smaller birds create higher frequency sounds while larger birds create lower frequency sounds. The global analysis not only proved this hypothesis correct, but it also added new information about the nature of the relationship between beak shape, body mass and sound.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Smaller bird species tend to have a wider range of frequencies at which they can make sound as a protection mechanism.<\/strong> Smaller, more vulnerable birds can benefit from being able to make a range of sounds. Higher frequencies can help them communicate with fellow birds of the same species, while lower frequencies can serve as a camouflage, tricking potential threats into thinking they are larger and less vulnerable than they actually are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The research also contributed to the broader understanding of soundscapes \u2014\u202fall of the sounds heard in any particular landscape. Soundscapes are often used as part of conservation studies, but Sagar realized \u201cthere\u2019s very little that we know about the forces that govern soundscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He hopes this foundational work will provide a platform for future studies to improve conservation efforts by developing ways to monitor the health of an ecosystem through soundscapes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the tropics and all over the world, larger birds tend to be hunted for meat,\u201d he says as an example. \u201cLarger birds [tend] to call at a low frequency, and if we don\u2019t find any sound in the lower frequency, we could [conclude] there may be more hunting in this landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next, Sagar hopes to use 24-hour soundscape recordings to understand if some birds modify the timing of their song in addition to their frequencies to communicate with their peers in a landscape crowded with noise. And he notes the important role that birdwatchers and citizen scientists play in discovering new insights about our natural world.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Written by Elise Mahon<\/p>\n<p>Link to original story: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/why-do-birds-make-so-many-different-sounds-a-new-uw-madison-study-gets-at-the-underlying-factors\/\">https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/why-do-birds-make-so-many-different-sounds-a-new-uw-madison-study-gets-at-the-underlying-factors\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birds make sounds to communicate, whether to find a potential mate, ward off predators, or just sing for pleasure. But the conditions that contribute to the immense diversity of the sounds they make are not well understood. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison have conducted the first-ever global study of the factors that influence bird [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-12062","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/12062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=12062"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=12062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}