The primary study of the relationship between environmental factors and dawn song in varied tits

Abstract

Dawn song is very sensitive to the environmental factors, including both natural factors and anthropogenic ones. To examine the relationship between the singing behavior of Varied Tits and dominant environmental factors, we recorded the dawn songs of Varied Tits (Parus varius varius). The results showed that: (1) Varied Tits began singing earlier as the sunrise time started earlier; (2) the start time of dawn song was later and the sing strength was lower in the cloudy days than that in sunny days; (3) the sing strength varied across different lunar cycle phases; (4) the acoustic parameters of typical songs of Varied Tits varied significantly, including frequency and amplitude, under noisy environment. Results from this study improve our understanding of the relationship between dawn song and environmental characteristics.