Tweet Follow Post Graphics: Urban Jungle

American Robin song - Urban Jungle | The Washington Post

Ornamental Flowering Tree Buy Henry Field's Ornamental Flowering Trees - $25.00 Free Rose Tree Bedding Sale Extra 50% off on Rose Tree bedding Free shipping for limited time Rose-Tree Bed Bugs Epidemic? Scientists call 2012 the Year of Bed Bugs. Protect Your Beds Today! BedBugs

Recommend 31

Tweet

Follow Post Graphics:

Urban Jungle

The changing natural world at our doorsteps | Illustration and text by Patterson Clark

2009: FALL

2010: WINTER

SPRING

SUMMER

FALL

2011: WINTER

SPRING

SUMMER

FALL

2012:WINTER

SPRING

WEEKS: 3 4

March 27, 2012

American robin song

It takes a night owl to beat the early bird

People rising very early in the morning may hear the pre-dawn singing of American robins. Urban robins crank up their loopy warbling music even earlier than their rural counterparts. Although city noise might play a role in that -- an early start helps urban birds avoid the din of rush hour -- it's more likely that they are responding to light pollution. In 2003, biologist Mark W. Miller studied robin song starting times in Arlington's Lyon Park neighborhood and compared them with data collected from the same location in 1929. In '29 the first robin songs began about 45 minues before sunrise, but 74 years later, when Lyon Park nights were awash in electrical light, robins tended to break their silence more than an hour earlier, often before any hint of dawn. Miller's study also included robins near the White House, in an area with even higher levels of artificial light. Those robins began singing about 3 hours earlier than the '29 Lyon Park robins. Miller said that the starting times for White House robins might be even earlier, because sometimes they were already singing when he arrived to monitor them.

First morning song of American robins in Lyon Park

DURING BREEDING SEASON

[3/26/2012 11:10:25 AM]

American Robin song - Urban Jungle | The Washington Post

*The half-hour before sunrise or after sunset; car headlights are generally not required. SOURCES: Mark. W. Miller, University of Alaska at Fairbanks; "Apparent Effects of Light Pollution on Singing Behavior of American Robins," the Condor; Biology Letters, the Royal Society

[3/26/2012 11:10:25 AM]

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download