Urban birds are regular tough guys compared to their country cousins. The avian urbanites adapt to changing environments and noisy, crowded habitats, a new study shows.

Birds that hang out on stoops and city streetlights have to deal with a set of challenges that feathered friends in more natural landscapes never encounter.

“The urban habitat is usually more severe than the habitats these birds historically occupied,” said study team member John Wingfield of the University of Washington. “Urban habitats aren’t easy, so the birds have to have developed coping mechanisms.”