Personnel: Dr. Patrick Hart, Dr. Kristina Paxton, Dr. Esther Sebastian Gonzalez, Ann Tanimoto-Johnson
Graduate Student(s): Karen Gallardo-Cruz
Birds are constrained to use a relatively narrow frequency bandwidth when they communicate vocally. Dense vegetation as well as natural sounds produced by insects like cicadas have the potential to interfere with bird communication. Similarly, anthropogenic noise from helicopters and may impact the frequency and time during which birds may most effectively signal. We are actively evaluating these ideas with the use of songmeters in both Costa Rica and Hawaii. Please see the “publications” section of this website for links to relevant manuscripts, including:
- Hart, PJ et al. 2015. Cicadas impact bird communication in a noisy tropical forest. Behavioral Ecology
- Sebastian Gonzalez et al. 2018. Testing the acoustic adaptation hypothesis with native and introduced birds in Hawaiian forests Journal of Ornithology
- Examining the effect of helicopter noise on Hawaiian forest bird communities.
