Abstract
Noise may drive changes in the composition and abundance of animals that communicate vocally. Traffic produces low‐frequency noise ( Coccyzus americanus ] and White‐breasted Nuthatch [ Sitta carolinensis ]), the presence of traffic noise explained the greatest proportion of variance in occupancy, and these species were 10 times less likely to be found in noisy than in quiet plots. For species that had only portions of their vocalizations overlapped by traffic noise, either forest cover or distance to forest edge explained more variation in occupancy than noise or no single variable explained occupancy. Our results suggest that the effects of traffic noise may be especially pronounced for species that vocalize at low frequencies.