Considerable attention has been paid to the effects of endocrine
disrupting chemicals in aquatic environments, but rather less
attention has been given to routes of contamination on land. A
new study, published in PLoS ONE on February 27 by researchers
at Cardiff University, reveals that wild birds foraging on
invertebrates contaminated with environmental pollutants, show
marked changes in both brain and behaviour: male birds exposed
to this pollution develop more complex songs, which are actually
preferred by the females, even though these same males usually
show reduced immune function compared to controls. Katherine
Buchanan and her colleagues studied male European starlings
(Sturnus vulgaris) foraging at a sewage treatment works in the
south-west UK and analysed the earthworms that constitute their
prey. The researchers found that those birds exposed to
environmentally-relevant levels of synthetic and natural
estrogen mimics developed longer and more complex songs compared
to males in a control group. Spe