City birds sing louder and more sweetly than their country cousins to stop sound being distorted by buildings

Its official city birds sing the sweetest songs – this article reveals:

“The research team say that while city bird’s priority is to make their call carry, country birds have other things on their mind, including rivals for their affections. They take into account the amount of distortion on their calls to estimate how close the competition is, and this is easier with a deeper birdsong.

Animal behaviour lecturer Dr Rupert Marshall said:  ‘The urban song is the better song to sing in terms of being heard. The question is why do birds in rural areas still sing rural songs? ‘Our suggestion is that it’s difficult to see rivals in woodland but because trees degrade the sound the birds can judge how far away calls are being made. They can tell where their rivals are.’

Other birds which have different tunes for the town and country include blackbirds, house finches and song sparrows.”

I personally would still rather listen to a rural lark ascending and will in future smile to think about the things on its mind as it unburdens itself!