Study system, vocal characters and vocal activities. (A) The seventeen sampling sites (Grey square: road; Blue square: residence; Green square: Park). The total activity for each species at each location is shown in bars for the lockdown (red) and no-lockdown (blue) periods. Different sampling sites are represented by different symbols. (B) Spectrograms of vocalizations with Hooded crow, Rose-ringed parakeet, and Graceful prinia. (C) An example of a heat-map indicating the activity of Hooded crow at site 11 monitored continuously between March 31 – May 28 (without the dates between April 9 – April 23, May 4 – May 6, May 17 – May 20, depicted by white gaps). The x-axis depicts the time of day (not normalized to sunrise). The y-axis is the date. The red horizontal line separates lockdown from no lockdown periods. The figure also suggests an overall seasonal increase in activity, but our models suggest a lockdown effect on top of this seasonal effect.

Activity of birds. Boxplots show the activity of (A) Human activity, (B) Hooded crow, (C) Rose-ringed parakeet, and (D) Graceful prinia for each site category during no lockdown and during lockdown. Green box plot: park; Grey box plot: road; Blue box plot: residence; Black box plot: overall. Note that human activity was assessed based on human speech so the increase observed during lockdowns in roads represents pedestrian and not car activity. Box plot lower and upper box boundaries show the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively, with the median inside. The lower and upper error lines depict the 10th and 90th percentiles, respectively. Outliers of the data are shown as black dots. Different sampling sites represented by different symbols. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.

Effects of predictor variables on birds’ activity based on generalized and general linear mixed models (GLMM and LMM). Estimates were calculated in % per day for the following units: Temperature – per degree, Noise – per dB, Human activity – per 1 talking event, Lockdown related parameter – per existence of the lockdown (yes/no).

Effects of predictor variables on the root mean square (RMS) and peak frequency in three bird species based on the linear mixed models (LMM).

Vocal intensity as a function of ambient noise (normalized to maximum) for (A) Hooded crows. (B) Rose-ringed parakeets and (C) Graceful prinia. The lines depict the linear regression fit. Red colors and blue colors represent data collected during no lockdown and during lockdown, respectively (each point represents the average over one day). Square: Residences; Circle: Roads; Triangle: Parks.