The chestnut-collared longspur spends the winter in Mexico and the southern United States; the Canadian prairies are its breeding grounds. (Jeremy Price) June 14, 2022 Prairie songbirds are affected by unpredictable noise produced by oil drilling Patricia Rosa, St. George's University Noise created by the oil industry impacts songbirds. Research found that constant noises, like those produced by oil wells, are less disruptive than the shorter bursts of noise produced by drilling.