The Dawn Chorus

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blurbs
The Dawn Chorus
Feb 22, 2025 Episode 24
Matt Ross

Come and learn about the functions and evolution of the dawn chorus, and how human activity is changing it.

Listening back, i think it's important to note that this research applies to diurnal (awake in the daytime) birds. Nocturnal birds never came up in my research, probably for that very reason, but I thought i'd mention it here nonetheless!

Also, I'm not sure why the last birdsong transition sounds a bit funky - it occurred during the final mastering step, and the rest were fine, so I don't know! Oh well, there's beauty in imperfection! 

This episode is dedicated to my Aunty Christine.


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References:

De Framond, L., & Brumm, H. (2022). Long-term effects of noise pollution on the avian dawn chorus: a natural experiment facilitated by the closure of an international airport. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289(1982), 20220906.

Gil, D., & Llusia, D. (2020). The bird dawn chorus revisited. Coding strategies in vertebrate acoustic communication, 45-90.

Gupta, P., Sinha, A., Malik, S., & Rani, S. (2023). Dawn and dusk chorus as a potential zeitgeber. Biological Rhythm Research, 54(1), 41-51.

Hill, S. D., Pawley, M. D., Anderson, M. G., & Ji, W. (2018). Higher song complexity and intruder pressure at dawn in a vocally complex songbird. Emu-Austral Ornithology, 118(2), 147-157.

Hodgson, L., Waas, J. R., & Foote, J. R. (2018). Early singers attend to conspecific but not heterospecific behavioural cues at dawn. Journal of Avian Biology, 49(7), e01749.

Hutchinson, J. M. (2002). Two explanations of the dawn chorus compared: how monotonically changing light levels favour a short break from singing. Animal Behaviour, 64(4), 527-539.

Lee, J. G. H., MacGregor‐Fors, I., & Yeh, P. J. (2017). Sunrise in the city: disentangling drivers of the avian dawn chorus onset in urban greenspaces. Journal of Avian Biology, 48(7), 955-964.

Naguib, M., Diehl, J., van Oers, K., & Snijders, L. (2019). Repeatability of signalling traits in the avian dawn chorus. Frontiers in zoology, 16, 1-11.

Pérez-Granados, C., Osiejuk, T. S., & López-Iborra, G. M. (2018). Dawn chorus interpretation differs when using songs or calls: the Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti case. PeerJ, 6, e5241.

Schlicht, L., Schlicht, E., Santema, P., & Kempenaers, B. (2023). A dawn and dusk chorus will emerge if males sing in the absence of their mate. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 290(2011), 20232266.

Vazquez-Cardona, J. (2022). Is the dawn chorus an adaptation to warm-up the voice in Adelaide's warbler (Setophaga adelaidae)? (Master's thesis, University of Lethbridge (Canada)).

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