Angrier Birds

Beware of bird rage:

To deduce the effect of noise pollution on birds, researchers played avian songs over a loudspeaker at 38 locations populated by male yellow warblers — a songbird that’s prevalent throughout the archipelago — on the islands of Floreana and Santa Cruz. Twenty of the sites were located around 164 feet from the nearest road while the remaining 18 were located 328 feet away. Scientists then played two different soundtracks; One featured the song of a rival male yellow warbler while another included this tune plus traffic sounds, the Guardian reported. They found that the males who lived near roads would act far more belligerently when exposed to the traffic-inflected soundtrack than those who lived further away. Scientists theorized that the car sounds drowned out the warning calls of the yellow warbler (pictured), resulting in miscommunication and increasing the likelihood of a confrontation. Scientists observed the perturbed birds approaching and flying around the speakers in apparent search of said interloper. Akçay said that while this fly-by was likely an effort to make themselves heard, some males remained silent as they approached, indicating that the time for “talk” had passed. “If there was an actual bird instead of a speaker, that would mean … a challenge, essentially, and that could result in a physical fight,” he said.

Stay out of their lanes...