Timing vocal behavior: Lack of temporal overlap avoidance to fluctuating noise levels in singing Eurasian wrens

• Eurasian Wrens do not time their songs to avoid short periods of loud traffic noise.
• They can avoid overlap with songs of a competitor but do not avoid overlap with intermittent white noise in field experiment.
• We used a null model for chance level prediction which incorporated the singing pattern of the focal bird.

Many animals live in or near urban areas that have become increasingly widespread and noisy over the last century. Especially those species that rely heavily on acoustics for communication may be affected by these elevated anthropogenic noise levels. Many bird species that sing to defend their territories and to attract mates may have to exploit specific noise coping strategies to persist in such acoustically challenging conditions. Eurasian wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes), like several other bird species, have been shown in a previous experiment to time their vocalizations such that they avoid overlap with other singing birds. Here, we tested whether Eurasian wrens also time their songs to avoid overlap with fluctuating anthropogenic noise. However, we did not find any evidence in favor of this potential phenomenon. Territorial wrens persisted in singing without temporal adjustments in noisy territories with ‘natural’ fluctuations of traffic noise levels as well as during experimental exposure to intermittent white noise.