Why do birds chirp in the morning?

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📓 The short answer

Birds chirp in the morning to signal they've survived the night, warm up their voices, take advantage of the quiet for better communication, and because it's too dark to search for food.

📚 The long answer

Whether you enjoy bird songs as a natural alarm clock or find them annoying, you might wonder why birds typically sing so early in the morning.

But before we dive into their crack-of-dawn curtain call, let's first go over why birds sing at all.

Why do birds sing?

brown bird singing on a tree — "I love singing-Austria - Flickr - chachasarra" by chachasarra is licensed under the public domain.

Like most animals, birds sing mainly to attract mates and mark their territory. Because of this, the majority of bird sounds you hear come from males.

A male bird sings to signal he's available to court female birds. A strong, clear song shows off his vitality to the ladies.

Singing also takes up a good amount of energy, so birds also use it to signal their strength and energy to other males. He's letting other birds know that this is his spot, and they better back off.

Why do birds chirp in the morning?

Although birds sing at all times of the day, they are most vocal during the "dawn chorus," usually around 30-90 minutes before sunrise.

While I was unable to interview a bird for this article, here are some reasons why birds chirp early in the morning.

Reason #1: They're letting other birds know that they've survived through the night.

A yellow green bird sings with a gaping wide mouth — Bird: "I'm BAAAAACK!"
"Singing in the Rain (16550311496)" by is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Mornings follow long, cold nights spent on an empty stomach for birds. By singing at the crack of dawn, male birds signal that they've survived the night and are still going strong.

A 2006 study found that well-fed birds sing longer dawn choruses. Otherwise, they need to cut the concert short to go looking for food.

By singing a long, loud, beautiful song, a male bird signals to female birds that he's strong, healthy, and holds a territory with plenty of food. A loud song also deters male rivals from encroaching on their territory.

Reason #2: Birds are "warming up" their voices.

A European Robin bird sings with a backdrop of blue sky — "European Robin (erithacus rubecula) singing" by Charles J. Sharp is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Like all great artists, birds warm up before their big performance of the day.

A 2020 study from Duke University found that birds start off their singing slowly and in a more limited range of notes. After hundreds of takes, birds increase their tempo and expand their range to perfect their songs.

It seems that the warmup exercise may help get their blood flowing to meet the physical demands of singing. Why does this matter? Well a well-sung song has been shown to better attract females and threaten males. The more the birds warmed up, the better their song quality.

Singing early in the morning may allow male birds to warm up and deliver their best performance.

Reason #3: It’s quiet in the morning.

A yellow warbler sings in front of a blurry green natural backdrop — "20240504 20240504 yellow warbler pleasant valley PD203185" by Paul Danese is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Another reason for early morning sing-offs that it's quieter in the morning, with less wind and noise. This allows their songs to be heard more clearly and travel up to 20 times further than later in the day.

One piece of evidence supporting this theory came from a 2013 study about noise pollution's impact on the dawn chorus. In this experiment, Researchers tested if playing traffic sounds over loudspeakers before dawn could cause birds to sing earlier. They found that some bird species began singing about 20 minutes earlier.

Birds sing to communicate, so singing early gives them the best chance of being heard.

Reason #4: It's too dark to look for food.

A black bird pulls a worm out of the grass — "The early bird gets the worm (8636326715)" by Sheila Sund is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Before the early bird gets the worm, they need to be able to see the worm. When most birds wake up, it's often too dark to go looking for breakfast. So another reason birds sing early is simply because they have nothing better to do.

Early morning is a prime time for male birds to attract females and display their strength to other males. As the sun rises, bird singing decreases as they begin searching for food.

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All my best,

Caitlin

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🎞️ Book Movie of the week

The Man from Earth

Described by one Letterboxd reviewer as "Like 12 Angry Men but for nerds," The Man from Earth is a movie about a man who claims to be 14,000 years old. The entire movie is a discussion of all the different questions that sprout from such an unbelievable life. I was truly captivated the entire movie, so much so I wanted to share it with you all. Also, it's a tight 90 minutes!

Check out the full list of books I've recommended here.