Abstract
Ambient noise can mask acoustic cues, making their detection and discrimination difficult for receivers. This can result in two types of error: missed detections, when receivers fail to respond to the appropriate cues, and false alarms, when they respond to inappropriate cues. Nestling birds are error-prone, sometimes failing to beg when parents arrive with food (committing missed detections) or begging in response to stimuli other than a parent's arrival (committing false alarms). Here, we ask whether the frequency of these errors by nestling tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) increases in the presence of noise. We found that nestlings exposed to noise had more missed detections than their unexposed counterparts. We also found that false alarms remained low overall and did not differ significantly between noise and quiet treatments. Our results suggest that nestlings living in noisy environments may be less responsive to their parents than nestlings in quieter environments. This journal is
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 530-532 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Biology Letters |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 23 2012 |
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't