May 6, 2020

"People around the world are reporting that birds are much louder these days."

"But Sue Anne Zollinger, an ornithologist from Manchester Metropolitan University, cautions: Don't believe everything you hear. With the decrease in traffic, there's less noise pollution. That means birds have less noise to compete with, she says. 'Although our perception might be that they're singing louder, it's actually likely in places that are typically noisy that they're singing more quietly than normal... But when the noise is gone, they're probably singing quieter than they do normally.'"

NPR reports.

34 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I tend to sing louder when no one is around.
No one appreciates me singing louder.

Kevin said...

A loud bird singing at the volume of a quiet bird.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Well, then, I reckon it is not appropriate to club them to death with your crutch. Lesson learned!

Dan from Madison said...

Louder birds. Is everyone completely stupid?

David Begley said...

You want loud birds? In Hall County, Nebraska many farmers live along the Platte River where millions of Sand Hills cranes hang out.

gilbar said...

the birds here in iowa, are loudly singing:
"Iowa restaurants are open for sit down seating! Not like in Communist Wisconsin!!"
I'm not sure, Why birds care about these things; i guess they're patriots

Temujin said...

Well, Duh.

tim maguire said...

Dan from Madison said...Louder birds. Is everyone completely stupid?

I haven’t noticed the phenomenon, but I can think of several perfectly plausible reasons why it might be true.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Who wouldn't sacrifice their job so that birds don't have to sing so loudly?

stevew said...

Never mind the birds, you should hear the peepers around here! Those little fellas sure can make a loud racket.

"Louder birds. Is everyone completely stupid?"

Ah, yeah, pretty much.

Fernandinande said...

Won't someone think of the Italian birds singing from their balconies, especially the melodious roosters?

Howard said...

I love how anecdotal evidence is used to elevate something to a thing and then have an anecdotal explanation of why the anecdotes are being created.

I do smell a rat, however. I'll offer up my own paranoid schizophrenic anecdote that this is just subterfuge foisted upon innocent working Americans who just want to go back to work in order to secretly implement the green New deal and have us wear burkas all day in the hot sun and stay at arm's length away from everyone else so that AOC can be Queen of the world

rehajm said...

I live in a swamp. The birds are always loud. Shut up!

Fernandinande said...

Sort-of related, from Heather Mac Donald, your "tax dollars at play" during a declared emergency :

"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are not taking the coronavirus epidemic seriously, to judge from their funding priorities. On April 20, those two agencies announced the availability of grants to increase the “diversity” of biomedical research labs. Academic virologists working on respiratory failure, say, could receive hundreds of thousands more taxpayer dollars if they could find a “diverse” student to add to the project. No scientific justification for the new diversity hire is needed; indeed, high school students are eligible, despite the virtual certainty that they will contribute nothing of value."

Big Mike said...

@gilbar (6:28), you’ve never seen sparrows fight over a greasy French fry that’s been dropped on the ground near an outdoor table?

Our local Red Bellied woodpecker doesn’t sing for his breakfast. If I don’t get his suet feeder hung from it’s pole by 8:00 am he starts drumming on the siding of our house. You know he’s not looking for insect larvae in vinyl siding so I assume he’s sending me a message. A pair of Eastern blue birds also come to the suet feeder, but even though they are insectivores they actually seem to prefer sunflower seeds to suet cakes. Go figure.

gilbar said...

Why does the caged bird Sing?

[Justice Rebecca Bradley] "Where in the Constitution did the people of Wisconsin confer authority on a single, un-elected cabinet secretary to compel almost 6 million people to stay at home, close their businesses and face imprisonment if they don't comply... Isn't it the very definition of tyranny?..."

mezzrow said...

Sitting here in north Florida listening to the birds. As miserable as events have been to date this year, this has been a magnificent spring in my area.

Big Mike said...

this has been a magnificent spring in my area.

It's been a miserable spring in Virginia. Saturday's predicted high temperature is only 46 degrees. Global warming my ass!

(Cue MadMan posting another one of his phonus-balognus charts arguing that it's only weather, not climate.)

Levi Starks said...

Experts telling common folk their perception is wrong

madison mike said...

I heard from a UW scientist that, according to the Cornell Ornithology web site, birds are expanding their song library due to reduced urban noise. Sure enough, I noticed blue jays making sounds I've never heard before.....power of suggestion?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well...if you live in an environment where you are surrounded by lots of background noise, like sirens, cars, trucks, people yelling, music blaring (wompa wompa wompa)....you aren't going to really hear a lot of things. You are immersed in a sea of annoying noise.

The birds in our area sound just the same. The frogs at night (there must be a million of them in the summer) are starting their serenades. Cows mooing. Bees humming in the fruit trees. Dogs occasionally barking. Coyotes singing at night.

Yes. We do occasionally hear big commercial trucks going by on the road. That is reassuring that civilization is continuing despite the best efforts of the Democraps

Tractors working down in the fields below us. And once in a while in the middle of the night some yahoo on a motorcycle (wing ding ding ding) What are you DOING out at night on your bike when it is freezing!!.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Also if you want loud birds. They just left, migrating on.

Hundreds of thousands of various geese and swans. My GOD those things never shut up!!! Chatty little bastards.

The ARE spectacular when they get scared and and fly by the thousands, circling to eventually land back where they were in the first place.

Rory said...

A young duck pair took residence in a tiny pond/big puddle in the closed park near me. They wouldn't have done that if the park had its regular quota of soccer tryouts and such. The downside now is that a family of young foxes has also ranged out of the woods. The ducks have disappeared, but I haven't seen any feathers so I'm hoping they left voluntarily.

rcocean said...

Hell NPR, the birds are singing Louder! Please have a scientist look into it, and do a story! Sandwich it in between the hourly "orange man bad" and "climate change will all kill us" stories.

Good grief. BTW, my NPR/PBS station is now asking for money, despite having commercials (brought you by XYZ the maker of blah/blah) every 10 minutes. When they get rid of the commercials, then my wife might give them $$ - otherwise Hell no.

rcocean said...

Our neighborhood Ducks now quack when they cross the street. Reason unknown.

rcocean said...
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BUMBLE BEE said...

They switched back to the pre-CBS Tweed Fender amps. Those bad boys tweed plenty loud!

Lurker21 said...


That's nice but there's no need to make a big squawk about it.

gilbar said...

BUMBLE BEE said...
They switched back to the pre-CBS Tweed Fender amps. Those bad boys tweed plenty loud!


i have noticed, that as the lockdown continues, my practice volumes are Slowly increasing. Yesterday, i realized, that i had my Fender Twin's master volume, up to 3 and a half.
I'm Sure my neighbors LOVE listening to my practice... i don't know that they like it THAT much

PM said...

Have recorded the birds in our trees.
Mostly about Asian hornets or something.

Michael said...

A Cardinal in our back garden has been going at it from dawn, literally, to dusk, literally for the past month. I have an app from Cornell that has bird calls on it and I play the Cardinal one sometimes just to fuck with him. And it is a him.

JLScott said...

Tim Maquire: I haven’t noticed the phenomenon, but I can think of several perfectly plausible reasons why it might be true.

Would you please name these perfectly plausible reasons?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Think we're getting louder? ... wait til we suddenly all go quiet

... then you'll really freak out"

These go to '11' My Back Pages

RichAndSceptical said...

I want to know who has my robins. Did they fly further north this year?

There seem to be much fewer robins and mockingbirds this year. I don't think I have seen as many cardinals or blue jays either.