City birds really are tougher: Urban Great Tits are aggressive because they are permanently STRESSED by humans
- Researchers looking at their behaviour in Leicester and Derby
- Songbirds defend their territory more vehemently if they live in an urban area
- Their care-free countryside cousins are far more lackadaisical, scientists found
Great Tits that live in cities are far more aggressive than their rural counterparts, according to new research.
Researchers looking at their behaviour in Leicester and Derby found these little songbirds defend their territory far more vehemently if they live in an urban area.
Their brazen behaviour is probably because they are constantly stressed by humans, while their care-free countryside cousins are far more lackadaisical, scientists found.
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Great Tits (stock image) defend their territory far more vehemently if they live in an urban area, according to researchers looking at their behaviour in Leicester and Derby
Scientists at the Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) believe birds adjust their behaviour depending on their habitat and the amount of human interference they are exposed to.
Lead researcher Dr Sam Hardman evaluated behavioural differences in territorial aggression in urban and rural male Great Tits as part of his PhD.
He tested if urban and rural birds exhibited differences in 'personality'.
The study took place in March and April 2015 in the city centres of Leicester and Derby as well as undeveloped rural areas in the surrounding countryside.
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Dr Hardman said: 'At this time of year males establish territories for the breeding season and they defend these aggressively against intruding males of the same species.
'We simulated a territorial intruder by playing back recordings of Great Tit song from a loudspeaker in the centre of the territory, and monitored the resident birds' responses to defend that territory.'
Researchers measured a number of responses, including territorial singing and how quickly and closely the birds approached the perceived intruder.
Urban tits are brazen and bad-tempered - probably because they are constantly stressed by humans - while their country cousins are far more lackadaisical. Pictured is Leicester, where the research was carried out
'These measurements allowed us to determine the levels of aggression in the birds', Dr Hardman said.
'Birds which responded more quickly and approached more closely were considered to be more aggressive.
'We found that after the playback began urban birds flew towards the speaker 35.34 seconds faster than rural birds and approached 1.63 metres closer, suggesting urban birds are bolder and more aggressive than rural birds.'
Great Tits are from a widespread family of tits that inhabit most of the world.
They are the larger and arguably less-famous, cousins to the Blue Tit.
Birds have become commuters to cities in winter because temperatures there are on average 5C (9F) warmer.
Last year researchers found birds have developed their own 'urban music' to deal with traffic noise.
This song is higher-pitched and faster than their normal song, Simon Watt, who presents wildlife programmes on TV, told the Cheltenham Science festival last June.
‘This is not evolution, this is acclimatising – these creatures getting used to their new environment and adapting to be heard over the low-pitched rumble of traffic', he said.
WHY DO MIGRATING BIRDS FLY IN A V-FORMATION?
Birds fly in a v-formation to help them fly more efficiently, staying aloft while expending as little energy as possible.
Scientists learned the aviation secrets of migrating birds after attaching tiny logging devices to a flock of 14 northern bald ibises that not only tracked their position and speed by satellite but measured every flap of their wings.
The 14 birds used in the study were hand-reared at Vienna Zoo in Austria by the Waldrappteam, an Austrian conservation group that is re-introducing northern bald ibeses to Europe.
Birds fly in a v-formation to help them fly more efficiently, staying aloft while expending as little energy as possible (stock image)
The birds were studied as they flew alongside a microlight on their migration route from Austria to their winter home in Tuscany, Italy.
Lead researcher Dr Steve Portugal, from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, said: 'The distinctive V-formation of bird flocks has long intrigued researchers and continues to attract both scientific and popular attention, however a definitive account of the aerodynamic implications of these formations has remained elusive until now.
'The intricate mechanisms involved in V-formation flight indicate remarkable awareness and ability of birds to respond to the wingpath of nearby flock-mates. Birds in V-formation seem to have developed complex phasing strategies to cope with the dynamic wakes produced by flapping wings.'
When flying in a V formation, the birds' wing flaps were approximately 'in-phase', meaning all the wing tips followed roughly the same path, the scientists found.
This helped each bird capture extra lift from the upwash of its neighbour in front.
Occasional shifts of position within the formation meant that at times birds flew directly one behind the other.
When this happened, the birds altered their wing beats to an out-of-phase pattern to avoid being caught by downwash.
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