I moved to this country five years ago and to this city four months ago, a way to explore the place I live in, is to listen to it.

- In the last decade or so, researchers have determined that more bird species are singing at night in urban areas so that they do not have to compete with ambient noise such as traffic sounds that are more common in the daytime. In addition, some species have started singing earlier in the day or have increased the volume of their songs in noisy places.

Not only is human-created environmental noise often simply loud, but it tends to be generated at lower acoustic frequencies. A number of species, including Song Sparrow and House Finch, have been found to sing with modified acoustic frequency in response to human-generated lower-frequency noise, reducing the masking of their lower-frequency notes by ambient clamor.

Being heard clearly is important to birds for mate attraction, territory defense, and communicating threats to other individuals. Noise pollution has had similar impacts on other types of creatures, including amphibians and insects.

Although all adult male mockingbirds sing during the day, only a bachelor sings at night. The night music that's driving you crazy is a love song.