Kristal Cain

Kristal Cain

Kristal Cain
Position

Associate Professor, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland (New Zealand)

Birds sing longer in areas with light pollution

Light pollution is causing birds to sing more, prolonging their vocalisations by an average of 50 minutes, according to a study published in Science. The study, which analyses more than 580 species of diurnal birds, shows that those most exposed to light, either because they have large eyes or open nests, are the most affected by this phenomenon. The authors analysed more than 60 million vocalisations from the BirdWeather citizen science project. ‘The machine learning algorithm allows us to analyse audio recordings 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which would otherwise take a lifetime to listen to,’ says Breant Pease, one of the authors.

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