Hormones and behaviorSep 7, 2018

Chronic traffic noise and its links to stress hormone levels and body health in adult and young wild birds

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 6, 2026

Abstract

Chronic traffic noise exposure is associated with altered corticosterone levels in adult female and nestling tree swallows.

Traffic noise exposure is linked to changes in baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels in both adult female and nestling tree swallows.
In adult females, chronic noise may impair the ability to respond to acute stress, as indicated by reduced stress-induced corticosterone levels after handling.
No evidence of habituation to noise was observed during the breeding season, with the negative relationship between noise and stress-induced corticosterone strengthening over time.
Nestlings exposed to traffic noise showed increased baseline corticosterone levels and decreased body condition.
Despite unchanged parental feeding behaviors, such as feeding rate and insect bolus size/composition, the negative effects on nestling body condition may indicate potential long-term population-level impacts.

Simplified

Transportation noise affects urbanized, rural, and otherwise unaltered habitats. Given expanding transportation networks, alterations in the acoustic landscapes experienced by animals are likely to be pervasive and persistent (i.e. chronic). It is important to understand if chronic noise exposure alters behavior and physiology in free-living animals, as it may result in long-lasting impacts, such as reduced reproductive success. Here, we experimentally tested the effects of chronic traffic noise on baseline and stress-induced corticosterone (the primary avian glucocorticoid), parental feeding behavior, and fitness proxies in breeding tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Our results show that chronic traffic noise is related to altered corticosterone in both adult female and nestling tree swallows, suggesting that noise may be a stressor in both groups. In adult females, our results suggest that traffic noise is related to a limited ability to respond to subsequent acute stressors (i.e. reduced stress-induced corticosterone levels after handling). Further, our results show no evidence of habituation to noise during the breeding season, as the negative relationship between traffic noise and adult female stress-induced corticosterone became stronger over time. In nestlings, we found a positive relationship between traffic noise exposure and baseline corticosterone. Finally, we found a negative relationship between traffic noise and nestling body condition, despite no detectable effects of noise on nestling provisioning (e.g. parental feeding rate, or insect bolus size/composition). These results highlight the potential long-term consequences of chronic noise exposure, as increased baseline corticosterone and reduced nestling body condition in noise-exposed areas may have negative, population-level consequences.

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Chronic traffic noise and its links to stress hormone levels and body health in adult and young wild birds

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