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Chiffchaffs Sang Less When Noise Overlapped Their Song Frequencies

Common chiffchaff singing from a slender perch
Research · Behaviour

Male common chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita) in Poland reduced their singing when continuous noise occupied the same frequency range as their songs. In playback experiments published on 27 February 2026, the birds produced significantly fewer and slightly shorter songs during fully overlapping noise than during silence or noise outside their normal song frequencies.

The researchers carried out two experiments with wild males in natural habitat, testing 18 males in each experiment. In the first, five-minute periods of white noise covering the entire frequency band of chiffchaff song alternated with silent periods. In the second, the same overlapping noise was compared with artificial noise broadcast at frequencies either below or above the species’ song range.

Frequency Overlap Determined the Response

When the artificial sound overlapped the chiffchaffs’ song frequencies, males lowered their song rate and also shortened their songs slightly. Noise at higher or lower frequencies did not produce the same reduction in vocal activity.

The results indicate that acoustic interference with the song itself, rather than continuous noise alone, constrained singing most strongly. The authors describe the response as temporal avoidance: the birds reduced how much they sang when their signals were most likely to be masked.

Sources and image credit

  1. Sokołowska, E., Staniewicz, A., Muszyńska, A., & Budka, M. (2026). Temporal avoidance of interfering noise by common chiffchaff. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 80, 28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-026-03704-wPeer-reviewed primary study published in February 2026. Two playback experiments with wild territorial male common chiffchaffs tested responses to continuous noise overlapping, below or above the species’ song-frequency range. Eighteen males were tested in each experiment; the published article reports significantly fewer and slightly shorter songs during overlapping noise.

Image: Andreas Trepte — wild common chiffchaff photographed 4 June 2013; Wikimedia Commons. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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