Trait mediated effects of anthropogenic noise on bird behavior and fitness

Birds are considered especially vulnerable to anthropogenic noise because of their reliance on acoustic information. Single-species research shows that noise can impact different aspects of bird behavior and consequently reduce their fitness. However, we have a limited understanding of how ecological and life-history traits mediate responses to anthropogenic noise across species. We performed a meta-analysis to quantify noise impacts on bird behaviors (communication, cognition, aggression, risk, foraging, and habitat use) and fitness-related responses (growth, physiology, and reproduction), and how bird traits, such as nesting and habitat type, mediated those responses. Using 944 effect sizes from 160 bird species across 6 continents, we found that anthropogenic noise significantly affected various behaviors as well as physiology and has strong negative effects on reproductive responses. We also found that anthropogenic noise had stronger negative effects on bird reproduction for specie..., , # Trait mediated effects of anthropogenic noise on bird behavior and fitness

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57q6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57q6)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data was collected through multiple literature searches. One done in 2017 and two co-occurring searches done in 2025. The 2025 searches were done through Web of Science and using Elicit AI.

### Files and variables

#### File: Bird-acoustic-meta-analysis-code_2025-11-03.R

**Description:** 

#### File: bird-acoustic-meta-analysis_DATA_2025-12-22.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* studyid: study specific ID
* effectid: individual ID given to each individual response
* species: Latin name of species
* common.x: English common name of species
* citation: lead author of paper from which data was extracted and year it was published
* response_cat: response category determined by authors based on response measured in original study (aggression, cognition, communication, foraging, ha...,