Data for sound comparisons of auditory frightening devices and antipredator responses of nuisance blackbirds

In August 2022, at a recently harvested agricultural field in Foster County, North Dakota, we collected sound attenuation data within the hearing range of blackbirds (Icteridae) for a propane cannon, rifle and shotgun within 500 meters of the detonation point. We also examined the responses (i.e., relaxed, vigilant, startled) of 32 red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) and 32 brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) to blasts when placed 15–495 meters from a cannon. The August 2020 study took place on flat terrain in a harvested agricultural field with no vegetative barriers at the North Dakota State University Agronomy Seed Farm in Casselton, North Dakota. Birds were placed in small, individual cages (covered to minimize visual stimuli) and we evaluated startle responses to the impulsive sound of the cannon with two experiments: 1) incremental, where we exposed birds to a series of blasts at decreasing distances and 2) random assignment, where we randomly assigned birds a distance and exposed them to four cannon blasts in quick succession. This data publication contains the data from both studies and the R code used to analyze these data.
The study was designed to measure sound attenuation of three tools used as frightening devices (i.e., propane cannon, rifle, and shotgun) at frequencies within bird hearing capabilities and to assess responses of birds to a propane cannon blast as a function of distance, and how responses change with repeated blasts.
For more information about this study and these data, see Duttenhefner and Klug (in press).