Early morning. You open the window in the bedroom. Instead of the familiar hum of cars, there is a trill. Clear, tinkling. It's a blackbird on the old poplar or a sparrow on the cornice. Birdsong in the city is not an accident, it's a small miracle of survival. Birds have adapted to asphalt, exhaust fumes, and crowds of people. They sing louder, higher, faster than their forest relatives. And in this song — our hope that nature has not surrendered. What Birds Sing in the City The city orchestra is more diverse than it seems. There are constant soloists. The first is a large sparrow. Its song, "ci-ci-fi, ci-ci-fi," can be heard from early spring to midsummer. The sparrow is daring, not afraid of people. The second is a chaffinch. Its tinkling trill with the characteristic "rum-rum-rum" is recognizable in any park. The third is a blackbird. It sings at dawn and dusk, its voice clear, melancholic, like a flute. The fourth is a swallow. It doesn't so much sing as mimic: it can insert a car alarm signal or a phone ringtone into its song. In large parks and forest parks, you can hear nightingales (yes, in Moscow, in Silver Forest, nightingales sing scales!), orioles (a flute of the highest class), larks (a gentle, soft whistle). In residential areas, you can often hear house sparrows (chirping like a rattle), blue tits, willow warblers. In industrial zones, there are city swallows that don't sing, but chirp and chirp in flight. How the City Changes Bird Song The city is noisy. Cars, construction, air conditioners, subways. The noise level in the center of a megacity reaches 70-80 decibels, while in the forest — 20-30. Birds have to compete. Studies show that city birds sing at higher frequencies than forest birds. Because low frequencies are drowned out by the hum of cars. The chaffinch in Berlin sings an octave higher than the chaffinch in Brandenburg Forest. The second change is speed. City birds shorten the intervals between notes and sing faster trills. S ... Read more