Feathers once domained in city air, Blue sky, flourishing trees, freely fly.

Pigeons, doves, house sparrows, nightingales, Singing a beautiful chorus.

Urban bustle came, feathers soared higher, Claiming skies where buildings vie. They against the roar of machines, but failed.

No more avian, no chirping vow, Feathers have left, abandoning lairs. Pigeons alone, speak for themselves.

If you listen carefully to the sounds of more-than-human inhabitants in the city, you will find it has become more and more quiet. No longer filled with avian song, but instead by the sound of development and growth. Since 1980, one out of every six birds has been lost because of human made pollution,which equates to the loss of 600 million breeding birds over 40 years, according to a study from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Bird species have now reduced by 15% across the UK since 1970.

Acoustic communication is very important to most bird species, because they use sound to defend territories, attract mates, and get in touch with their partners and offspring. However, because of noise pollution due to rapid urbanization, city birds are negatively affected and choose to leave the city area or change their sound frequencies to save their communication ability. Species that have the lowest frequency songs are reportedly the most negatively affected by urban noise. The typical call frequency of pigeons is within the range of approximately 1,000 to 4,000Hz. This would imply that pigeons should be heavily influenced and disturbed by the low rumble of typical city noise but in fact, their populations in cities are strong and growing.

Pigeons are considered a "weird" species of bird, as they defiantly flourish in human spaces, foraging for food through human wastes, but taking space back from human territory. They can be found in every single corner of the city, in the parks, streets, churches, parkbenches, statues, broken ledges, and pipework. Why do pigeons choose to stay in the city? Who is the owner of the land? What are birds’ rights?

With these questions in mind, the project decided to explore communication among birds, and how noise pollution influences them. This project aims to explore various birds’ calls with different frequencies, and how they be changed by urban noise pollution. After searching through archives of birds’ call, I visualized their frequencies with several frequency generators and audio edition software. The project compares the bird call frequencies of pigeon, house sparrow, nightingale, and doves, which could clearly show their differences. The machine and factory sound interrupt bird chorus in the middle of the project and finally other birds has left and leave pigeons alone.