BS: Birds singing at night

Subject: BS: Birds singing at night
From: *Laura*
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 04:17 PM

Where I come from, i.e. the countryside, the birds start singing when it starts to get light... so around 7am in winter, and 5am in summer.

While I am here, living in London, I rarely hear birds... except at night. Outside my window birds sing all night.

What kind of birds sing at night? Are they just messed-up london birds or is it specific to a type? The only kind i can think of is a Nightingale, and I thought they were migratory so presumably they wouldn't be in London at this time of year?

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 04:25 PM

Birds sing in the mating season, and after young are born, after about four to six hours of sleep. Here, this works out to about 3 to 4AM. Still a couple of hours of darkeness. This allows them to imprint their call on the young, or initially call to mates, without attracting predators.

I don't have any "proof" of that. Just seems to be logiacal to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 06:41 PM

Paul McCartney wrote a song about it...

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night"

If it is a tuneful trilling then it's a blackbird. Nightingales don't like the city and it is probably several thousand years since one sang on the geographical spot that is now Berkeley Square.

It could be a territorial robin doing as Gnu said above, showing off for a prospective mate - and as we all know it's the early bird that catches the worm.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 07:11 PM

It's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird. Sleep in eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 07:31 PM

I think it's related to big city light pollution. My step-daughter and her husband used to live in Atlanta. When we'd visit them, I'd hear songbirds singing all night long. Where we live, in the country, if a bird sings at night it's either a whippoorwill or an owl.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 07:32 PM

There's a mockingbird here that sometimes sings at night. I always figured it was because of the bright street light that's right in front of our house. My theory was that it confused the bird's natural rhythms. But that's just a theory.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Janie
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 09:38 PM

A quick search turned up a news article suggesting that it has to do with ambient noise in cities drowning out bird's mating songs during the day.

Research re: birds singing at night

I have had mocking birds drive me to the brink of murder on more than one occasion and in more than one location with their loud singing in the dead of night. The first time it is charming - for 10 minutes or so. But these guys will go for hours, night, after night, after night....

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 09:43 PM

I don't think noise is the culprit in our neighborhood. We live in a very quiet neighborhood with very little traffic or other noise and mockingbirds are heard very clearly during the daytime here.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Janie
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 10:04 PM

Mockingbirds are one of the few songbirds that naturally sing at night.   Mostly, but not exclusively, they are unmated males. They will generally stop once they have a sweetheart. They are also prone to sing when the moon is full, so I would guess light pollution may be a factor.

However, I've had them wake me up out in the country with no lights and no moon.

It seems to me that I am more likely to hear them toward the end of the mating season than at the beginning. I guess those bachelors begin to feel a little desparate!

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 12:49 AM

At the old Jaguar plant in Coventry, there were several dozen birds that lived largely inside, being fed mostly by scavenging the assemblers' food. Although the plant was just as bright at night, the sparrows did NOT work shifts like us, and we got a dawn chorus as the roof-windows lightened.

Good fun in spring when the baby birds were learning to fly.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 02:23 AM

Just like a male to blow his own trumpet!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Splott Man
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 04:03 AM

Nightingales may not like the city of London, but are numerous in Cardiff. They seem to favour junctions with traffic lights.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 04:08 AM

You can hear birds singing anytime...day or night..just increase your dosage!

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 06:22 AM

Apparently city birds also sing higher and faster so as to carry over the noise
see here

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 06:44 AM

How odd that no-one has mentioned Owls up to this point! The bird one is likely to hear most of at night, at least in the UK, is an owl of some sort or other. In the countryside the rarer nightjar may be heard.

The Robin has already been mentioned and is often one of the first birds we hear in the dawm chorus and one of the last to stop late at night. Birds that are stronlgy territorial and want a mate are the most likely culprit.

I have heard geese flying overhead in the dead of night in winter on a couple of occasions. The odd crows call or even pigeon is not too unusual. Also, I have seen the occasional bird fly through the headlight beam when I have been out in the countryside at night. Maybe some birds move around more than we think? Migratory birds, of course, will fly through the nights as well as days when they move between continents. I dare say they makes noises to keep the group intac (though this really is just an idea I have noi proof of).

Most animal behaviouralists postulate light pollution and noise being the main reasons our birds are heard to sing in the night in our cities. There have been several studies to support the idea. Many of these birds die of exhaustion as they never get the rest they need and their body clocks can be thrown completely out. Some sing at night to attract mates because their song is drowned out by traffic noise at other times. Quiat an adaptation really, in evolutionary terms, as traffic noise and light pollution are very recent things. I do wonder if birds bred under such conditions have an innate ability to sing out at night because their parents songs were imprinted on them at night?

Just some observations and ideas :-)

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 10:59 AM

I once heard a blackbird singing in the dark of night while in the heart of Prague. There was little light pollution.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 01:27 PM

I have sometimes pondered what the fowl of various sorts do in the north- in the summertime, even in Juneau, there is little real dark and in the winter the bright daytime hours are short. Farther north such as in Barrow or Deadhorse or even farther south in Nome these conditions are but intensified.

Without sufficient sleep or conversely, activity, how do these birds function?

They must cope somehow - we have lots of birds.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 04:31 PM

Not light pollution. Birds do this in mating and breeding season.

As far as them singing more loudly to overcome noise pollution, the 400 pound robin that sings in my maple tree twenty feet from my window has only one volume setting... WAKE GARY UP!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Joybell
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 04:54 PM

It's not an answer to the question but here in Australia Australian Magpies and Willie Wagtails sing through the night during mating and breeding season. They don't seem to sleep much at this time. Boobooks and other owls do too, as you'd expect, but they sleep all day.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 05:37 PM

I once heard a nightingale sing at night in Aberdeen , Scotland,in the month of march .

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,hg or haggard or whatever!
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 09:45 PM

What time is it when a four hundred pound robin sits on your fence?

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 09:49 PM

Birds I have heard at night: whippoorwills, nighthawks , barred owls, barn owls, great horned owls, canadian geese coming in for the evening on a pond....hmmm, let me go outside and listen for a while...

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 06:38 AM

Well, it's NOT the time to be a worm.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 07:07 AM

BWL above is right - it is the light pollution. There was a documentary on this last year, specifically about birds in London. Sad but true, the little blighters are totally confused and neurotic,not knowing whether it's day or night. For the same reason their life span seems to be also severely affected; not enough sleep.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 09:38 AM

When visiting family in Virginia I awoke to the sound of birds outside the window. It sounded like the trees were alive with many different ones. Looking out I was surprised to see one lone bird perched on a wire. Mockingbirds are rather rare where I live in Cape Breton so I considered this songster a real treat. When I mentioned this to my 12 year old grandson I found that he was not a lover of that bird at all because it often disturbed his sleep. Anyway I would whistle a few notes and the bird would repeat them. I think that I would enjoy one outside my own window.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: RangerSteve
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 09:38 AM

I had a mockingbird that made two visits each year to my neighborhood, probably during migration. He kept me up all night, but I actually liked it. He wasn't here last year, so, as Janie said above, they stop singing after they've mated, so maybe he has a mate. Another possibility is that the county took down a row of osage orange trees that grew along the road and may have removed his perch. I miss him.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,Bernie
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 06:18 AM

This bird sings from sundown till mid morning. It is a short trill but is unusual. There is an echo which I presume is a mate or a wanted mate. I'm curious.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 08:26 AM

A little off the subject but...there is one stupid Canada goose who gets separated from his group and flies frantically over my house about 7:30 AM honking in a panic. What is wrong with that guy??

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Beer
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 08:30 AM

Looking for it's mate that someone is having for supper.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 08:47 AM

Sniff...

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: open mike
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:12 AM

Laurie Lewis sings Mark Simos' "When the Night Bird Sings,"
on her 1989 album "Love Chooses You" unable to find lyrics now,
but i will keep looking..

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 05:14 PM

The domestic chicken sleeps at night; it appears virtually blind in the dark. Why is that?

The Budgerigar (parakeet) quiets down when a cover over the cage imitates night. Why is that?

In the early 80s I watched a total solar eclipse from a hillside above a fruit orchard. As the sky darkened and my surroundings became "night" dozens of small birds swooped past me to take shelter in dense bushes, obviously unwilling to be caught in the dark. Why is that?

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 05:17 AM

Re the light pollution explanation... the birds are not singing during "dark hours" now. It's daybreak here and I haven't heard a chirp since nightfall. There is just as much light pollution as there was during mating and rearing season. Why is that?

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 06:06 AM

The 'dawn chorus' or most birdsong is not as prevalent out of pre- and mating season. I suppose it fits that those birds that sung in the night will not be as noisy out of season either? Are they quieter and not so vocal in daytime too now therefore?

Perhaps, once they have their nests, they are not as loud as it uses energy they need for other things and also keeps down attracting predators?

Not sure at all my maybe a resident ornithologists could comment?

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 10:19 AM

I often hear loons late at night and often in mid afternoon. I also hear doves at night occasionally. A few warblers sing at three or four in the morning in late summer, I wonder if they aren'tyoung birds wanting an early nosh.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Rumncoke
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 05:23 AM

I had a little gang of lovebirds flying free in the conservatory, when there was a solar eclipse they went to their night time roost - then a few minutes later they got up again, highly indignant at being conned by the light levels dropping.

In the winter I have seen a flock of wagtails in a tree by a lamp at the supermarket. They hop about and cheep - I assume they are keeping warm and stay in that tree because they can see better. In the warmer weather there are songbirds audible all night in the same area.

I think, having kept them, hens don't have any night vision.

Maybe the noisier at night birds either use artificially lit areas, or simply see better in dim light.   

Anne Croucher

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 07:29 PM

All this talk about the cheeping of birds reminds me of the charming story of the person who discovered one Christmas season that birds were taking advantage of the heat the Christmas bulbs put out in their large outdoor tree. After Christmas was over she turned off the lights only to turn them back on when there was a chorus of complaints from the hidden birds.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 07:52 PM

Awww... hehehehee. Heartwarming, Ebbie.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 07:55 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu - PM
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 04:25 PM

Birds sing in the mating season, and after young are born, after about four to six hours of sleep. Here, this works out to about 3 to 4AM. Still a couple of hours of darkeness. This allows them to imprint their call on the young, or initially call to mates, without attracting predators.

I don't have any "proof" of that. Just seems to be logiacal to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: gnu - PM
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 05:17 AM

Re the light pollution explanation... the birds are not singing during "dark hours" now. It's daybreak here and I haven't heard a chirp since nightfall. There is just as much light pollution as there was during mating and rearing season. Why is that?

Seems to be the case. I think the the "bad human" "light pollution" is erroneous.

Any comments?

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 11:12 PM

The Australasian Magpies have just started calling in the early hours, here, as they do from Spring (now!) to Summer's end. Aggressive birds, they harass everything from sparrows up to vehicles!. Particularly Black-backed Gulls.
We often hear ducks (mallard?) flying and quacking in the dark hours.

Subject: RE: BS: Birds singing at night
From: Pistachio
Date: 07 Sep 09 - 06:20 AM

The blackthorn/Hawthorn hedge in my back garden comes alive (well before I do) with birdsong but in the early evening around 6pm in August, East Yorkshire, we recognised that there was a hedge full of conversing birds. An amazing sound that caused our Barbecue guests to ask what was happening. I don't have an answer but won't trim the hedge yet so as not to disturb its residents who seem to breed frequently! To my untrained eye and ear they appear to be sparrows and starlings.
Whatever, it is such a pleasure to hear them and my mother loves to sit in the garden specifically to catch the chorus when she visits.
Hazel.