Academic symposium on bird population dynamics, bioacoustic and environmental sounds.

On May 3 our students presented their research results to their peers and other professors of the School for Field Studies here in Costa Rica. Two main topics pertaining acoustic ecology were developed. The first topic showed results of basic analyses of bioacoustic time generated by four focal species of birds. The objective of this research was to investigate the temporal and spatial song emissions of the four species in the context of an undisturbed natural environment. In contrast, the other topic investigated the bioacoustic responses of the same bird species and changes in the dawn chorus structure to a manipulative noise playback experiment. Preliminary results suggest that some focal species do not seem to alter their bioacustic time; however, structural changes in the complexity of the dawn choruses may be affected by short term noise disturbances as assessed by the field experiment. The students are very excited about this interesting finding and are going to submit a short note for scientific publication.      

 

Undisturbed forest in the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Reserve, San Ramón, Costa Rica.         

 

Playback experimental setting. The road noise was broadcasted during the first hour of the dawn chorus while the soundscape was recorded simultaneously. Bird bioacoustics were then analyzed using Raven acoustic analysis program