As we understand more about bird brains, we can inform habitat conservation in ways that allow songbirds to develop behaviours related to vocal communication that are critical to mate selection and, ultimately, species survival.

Songbirds, like humans, learn their vocabularies first from hearing, then by imitating, an adult tutor. As a consequence, songbirds have considerable “infrastructure” in their brains dedicated to listening to, learning, and responding to changes in their acoustic environment.

The onset of the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment, called Anthropocene, is significant. It has revealed many ways in which songbirds (and their specialized brains) have been forced to adapt to an increasingly human-dominated landscape.

This presentation will first provide an overview of vocal learning in songbirds and the corresponding brain regions that help songbirds perceive, produce, and learn birdsong. We will then consider how three Anthropogenic factors: (1) increased noise, (2) decreased food availability (as a result of changing habitats), and (3) environmental contaminants (including pesticides), alter both behaviour and brains across a wide range of songbird species. Finally, we will examine potential management implications and mitigation strategies.

 

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Note: The research highlighted in this presentation is described in a recently-published chapter in an edited book (citation link below), and is available in PDF form upon request from the author/presenter (via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429299568-9

Parks BMB, Horn AG, MacDougall-Shackleton SA, Phillmore LS. 2021. Vocal Learning and Neurobiology in the Anthropocene. In: Proppe, DS (ed.), Songbird Behaviour and Conservation in the Anthropocene (1st ed.). Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press.

Biography
Broderick (Brodie) M. B. Parks is a songbird biologist and researcher in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Master of Science, both in Neuroscience, from Dalhousie University. His research focuses primarily on the brain-behaviour interaction in songbirds. Prior to his graduate work, Brodie was part of the Conservation team at Nature Canada (Ottawa, ON), where we studied changes in post-breeding pre-migratory swallow roosts along Lakes Ontario and Erie. Currently, Brodie is a part-time instructor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University and a visiting researcher in the Departments of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba. He begins his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in January 2023. His work is supported by the Killam Trusts and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Brodie has been a proud member of the Nova Scotia Bird Society since 2018, and currently sits on its Board of Directors. You can reach him via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..