Phenotypic plasticity and the anthropause: an urban bird becomes less aggressive

Abstract

Urban areas often impose strong, novel selection pressures on wildlife. Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism helping organisms establish populations in novel environments. Phenotypic plasticity can be difficult to study in urban wildlife because many urban environmental variables are challenging to isolate and manipulate experimentally. We took advantage of the COVID-19 lockdowns to assess whether urban birds expressed aggression differently when relieved from frequent encounters with humans. We measured the territorial aggression responses of resident dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) on an urban college campus in Los Angeles, USA. We found that the population overall displayed significantly reduced aggression in pandemic year 2021 compared to the typical year 2019. Furthermore, individuals measured in both 2019 and 2021 showed significantly reduced aggression during 2021, demonstrating that individual birds maintain phenotypic plasticity in this trait. Our results show that human disturbance likely has a significant effect on the aggressive behavior of urban birds.