Species-Specific Responses of Bird Song Output in the Presence of Drones

• Published in: Drones
• Main Authors: Andrew M. Wilson, Kenneth S. Boyle, Jennifer L. Gilmore, Cody J. Kiefer, Matthew F. Walker
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: bioacoustics; drone; noise pollution; songbird; UAV; UAS; Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics; TL1-4050; Avian Studies
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6010001; https://doaj.org/article/b9cf91d73fe045609883a7ef670948f6

Drones are now widely used to study wildlife, but their application in the study of bioacoustics is limited. Drones can be used to collect data on bird vocalizations, but an ongoing concern is that noise from drones could change bird vocalization behavior. To test for behavioral impact, we conducted an experiment using 30 sound localization arrays to track the song output of 7 songbird species before, during, and after a 3 min flight of a small quadcopter drone hovering 48 m above ground level. We analyzed 8303 song bouts, of which 2285, from 184 individual birds were within 50 m of the array centers. We used linear mixed effect models to assess whether patterns in bird song output could be attributed to the drone’s presence. We found no evidence of any effect of the drone on five species: American Robin Turdus migratorius , Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas , Field Sparrow Spizella pusilla , Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia , and Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea . However, we found a substantial decrease in Yellow Warbler Setophaga petechia song detections during the 3 min drone hover; there was an 81% drop in detections in the third minute (Wald test, p < 0.001) compared with before the drone’s introduction. By contrast, the number of singing Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis increased when the drone was overhead and remained almost five-fold higher for 4 min after the drone departed ( p < 0.001). Further, we found an increase in cardinal contact/alarm calls when the drone was overhead, with the elevated calling rate lasting for 2 min after the drone departed ( p < 0.001). Our study suggests that the responses of songbirds to drones may be species-specific, an important consideration when proposing the use of drones in avian studies. We note that recent advances in drone technology have resulted in much quieter drones, which makes us hopeful that the impact that we detected could be greatly reduced.