Rural birds find it difficult to

Rural male male finches cannot pair or make friends with urban birds, because they do not like each other's song.

A pair of big corn finches.Photo: BBC.

In most birds, males sing to protect their territory and attract their partners. In an urban environment their soundstage must be large to be able to overpower the noise. But if male birds fly to rural areas to look for female birds, perhaps they will see 'women' not paying attention to their songs.

Dr. Rupert Marshall, an expert at Aberystwyth University (Wales), and colleagues recorded the songs of the big corn finches in 20 British cities. Then they recorded the sounds of corn finches on the outskirts of those cities.

When the 'songs' of rural birds were broadcast in urban areas through loudspeakers, the team found that all the birds here did not react (by singing 'to repay' or flying towards the emit). song). The situation is similar when the song of city birds is distributed in rural areas.

'People always talk loudly in noisy places - like bars or discos - but we still recognize the voices of our friends when we go out. It seems that the big corn sparrow in the countryside also recognizes the voices of urban dwellers and vice versa, but they do not show interest in responding , 'Marshall said.

The researchers said they will continue to find out why females are able to distinguish the voices of urban and rural dwellers.