Henrik Brumm

Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Communication and Social Behaviour, Research group leader

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Effect Sizes and the Integrative Understanding of Urban Bird Song

American Naturalist, 2012

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Enhanced testosterone levels affect singing motivation but not song structure and amplitude in Bengalese finches

Physiology & Behavior, 2011

Song is a fundamental component of territory defense and mate attraction in birds, and androgens ... more Song is a fundamental component of territory defense and mate attraction in birds, and androgens (like testosterone) are known to play a key role in controlling it. However, little is known about how differences in testosterone levels between males translate into inter-individual song variation. Indeed, testosterone could affect both the motivation to sing and the structure of song itself. Here,

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On the function of song type repertoires: testing the ‘antiexhaustion hypothesis’ in chaffinches

by Peter Slater and Henrik Brumm

Animal Behaviour, 2009

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Female zebra finches prefer high-amplitude song

Animal Behaviour, 2010

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Birds and Anthropogenic Noise: Are Urban Songs Adaptive?

American Naturalist, 2010

In cities with intense low-frequency traffic noise, birds have been observed to sing louder and a... more In cities with intense low-frequency traffic noise, birds have been observed to sing louder and at a higher pitch. Several studies argue that higher song pitch is an adaptation to reduce masking from noise, and it has even been suggested that the song divergence between urban and nonurban songs might lead to reproductive isolation. Here we present models of signal transmission to compare the benefits of raised song amplitude and song pitch in terms of sound transmission. We chose two bird species that sing with higher pitch in urban areas, the great tit (Parus major) and the blackbird (Turdus merula). For both species, we calculated communication distances in response to different levels of urban noise and in their natural forest habitats. We found that an increase in vocal pitch increased communication distance only marginally. In contrast, vocal amplitude adjustments had a strong and significantly larger effect. Our results indicate that frequency changes of urban songs are not very effective in mitigating masking from traffic noise. Increased song pitch might not be an adaptation to reduce signal masking but a physiological side effect of singing at high amplitudes or an epiphenomenon of urbanization that is not related to signal transmission.

Blackbirds sing higher-pitched songs in cities: adaptation to habitat acoustics or side-effect of urbanization?

Animal Behaviour, 2009

When animals colonize cities they often have to adapt their physiology, life history and behaviou... more When animals colonize cities they often have to adapt their physiology, life history and behaviour to the novel environment. Songbirds rely on acoustic communication for reproduction, and recent studies indicate that songs vary between urban and nonurban habitats. In cities, birds sing louder or use higher frequencies compared to their conspecifics in forests. These habitat-specific differences in song have been interpreted as an adaptation of the city birds to mitigate acoustic masking by low-frequency traffic noise. We compared the songs of blackbirds, Turdus merula, from the city centre of Vienna and the Vienna Woods and found that forest birds sang at lower frequencies and with longer intervals between songs. This difference in song pitch might reflect an adaptation to urban ambient noise. However, the song divergence could also be the result of more intense vocal interaction in the more densely populated city areas or a side-effect of physiological adaptation to urban habitats. We emphasize the need for experimental studies in blackbirds, but also in other species, to clarify a possible causal link between urban acoustics and song characteristics of city birds.

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Animals can vary signal amplitude with receiver distance: evidence from zebra finch song

by Peter Slater and Henrik Brumm

Animal Behaviour, 2006

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Animal Communication: Timing Counts

by Peter Slater and Henrik Brumm

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Developmental stress affects song learning but not song complexity and vocal amplitude in zebra finches

by Peter Slater and Henrik Brumm

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2009

Several recent studies have tested the hypothesis that song quality in adult birds may reflect ea... more Several recent studies have tested the hypothesis that song quality in adult birds may reflect early developmental conditions, specifically nutritional stress during the nestling period. Whilst all of these earlier studies found apparent links between early nutritional stress and song quality, their results disagree as to which aspects of song learning or production were affected. In this study, we attempted

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Acoustic Communication in Noise

Advances in the Study of Behavior, 2005

... Similarly, blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea) produce ... more

Do Barbary macaques ?comment? on what they see? A first report on vocalizations accompanying interactions of third parties

by Silke Kipper and Henrik Brumm

Primates, 2005

Primates acquire knowledge about relationships of third parties and group structure by monitoring... more Primates acquire knowledge about relationships of third parties and group structure by monitoring their conspecifics. We show that Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) utter specific vocalizations while monitoring interactions of other group members. As they did not direct other behaviours to the interacting group members, we provisionally termed these vocalizations &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;vocal comments&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;. We investigated the acoustic properties of these comments and the social contexts in which they occurred. Most adult males and females of two studied groups produced low-amplitude calls when observing close contact interactions of other group members. The acoustic features of these calls varied with characteristics of the commented situation. Our results suggest that such calls might not be directed towards the agents of the commented situation, but towards other group members. The vocal comments may signal the caller&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s awareness of the observed interaction and possibly attract the attention of others to the situation.