Comments on: Urban noise can turn sparrow females into bad mums

By: Prasad

Prasad — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:50:56 +0000

Very interesting. Sparrows have disappeared from Mumbai (India) for the last few years. This may be one of the reasons, other than of course loss of habitat.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:58:39 +0000

Male provisioning was unaffected by the noise, so the headline is accurate.

By: Kea Giles

Kea Giles — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:01:41 +0000

Good post and analysis, but I quibble with the headline. Why just “bad mums”? What about the males? Both help with the feeding. And then there are the other unmated sparrows that can help out. And, isn’t the male the one that builds the nest? Don’t lay it all on the mums!

By: jules

jules — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:21:00 +0000

Interesting. Here (Kantou region f Japan) we get cicada that make an awful noise for several months… rather louder than most urban environments I can imagine. And one thing that is really missing here is the sweet woodland birdsong of the UK. Here, the birds mostly screech and you don’t hear them at al during the cicada season. I think I read that the reason cicada make such a terrific noise is as a defence against being eaten by birds, but I wonder if the background cicada noise affects the birds more than that.