Bird Studies ~ Why Do the Birds Sing?
For me, there is nothing like the sound of the song birds singing on a warm breezy spring morning. Really, any time of year their melodies bring me a feeling of peace. This last week we spent time learning about just why it is that the beautiful birds sing.
We spent some time one day sitting outside listening to birds singing and chattering. We kept a notebook page handy and wrote down all the one’s we could hear by making a list of the type of bird (if we knew it) and what we thought it sounded like. Such as we heard three bird sounds and listed:
Northern Cardinal - sounds like cheery, cheery, cheery
White-Breasted Nuthatch - sounds like beep, beep, beep
Northern Flicker - sounds like “ric, ric, ric, ric, ric, riccccc”
We also were able to observe all of these birds in action, and made verbal note of where they were when they were singing. Of course I think we could have heard a lot more if my son wasn’t pretending to fly around the backyard chirping like a bird, I think that scared off a few! (real homeschool mom quote: “Alex, stop running around the backyard in your pajamas chirping like a bird, the neighbors will think we’re crazy!”) He did manage to calm down for a moment, standing perfectly still by the bird feeders while a few came very close to him.
After returning back inside, we revisited this quote by Jenny Wren from The Burgess Bird Book for Children
“I do wish he would be careful. Sometimes I am afraid he will overdo. Just look at him now! He is singing so hard that he is shaking all over…” pg. 3
Next we read Solomon 2:11-12:
”See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.”
We had a quick discussion on how beautiful the singing of birds is in the spring. And then we talked a bit about why the birds sing. Birds sing primarily for three main reasons:
- to communicate with one another
- to define territory
- to attract a mate
Mostly it is the males that do the singing, however sometimes the female will sing too. Such as with the Northern Cardinal the female will sometimes sing with the male as if to strengthen their bond.
Not all birds technically sing, some make many other interesting sounds. Such as: pheasants crow, doves coo, kingfishers rattle, owls hoot, hawks screech, and woodpeckers drum.
Bird’s bills and beaks play little or no role in singing. The sound comes from deep in their throat. It is made by exhaling air from their lungs. While the bird’s beak may not play a role in their singing, some birds are quite showing in using their beaks while serenading. Such as the Eastern Medowlark.
Experts think birds learn to sing as a result of a combination of heredity and mimicking. Juvenille songbirds will begin to rehearse their songs by their first autumn and winter. And by spring they are singing maturely.
Most birds do not sing all year long. The Northern Cardinal is the exception, having been known to sing all year long. During the winter time the Cardinal’s singing is almost always one of the first sounds we hear when we go out for nature walks. The best time to hear the widest variety of birds singing is at dawn on a spring morning, it has been referred to as the “Dawn Chorus.” This is of course because the springtime is the peak of mating season.
Most songbirds sing short songs of about 2-6 seconds; a few are known to continuously repeat. Bird songs are categorized mainly in two ways: songs - melodious; and calls – sharp/direct. Calls are used as loud alarms or quiet chatter to attract a female.
Another thing we discussed is the fact that bird songs have been the source of inspiration for a lot of classical music. There is an interesting study about this where they list the composer and the composition in which they wrote that mimics some bird songs. You can find that here: How Tweet It Is: Bird Songs in Classical Music. We listened to several of these compositions by linking from that site to here: Classical Music for the Birds.
Did you know that there is a debate about Beethoven’s 5th symphony? Some say he based the beginning of the symphony (da da da daaaaa) from the sound that the Yellow Hammer (aka Northern Flicker) makes when drumming on a tree. Others say it was intended to be the sound of “fate knocking at the door.” What do you think?
One last neat note. We learned about a bird called the Lyre Bird. They live in Southern Australia. Well, I’ll just let the video do the rest of the talking!
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