Why Do Birds Chirp In The Twilight?

The birds are already awake as the first light of the sun hits the earth. They sing their way into the day as loud as they can. They end their day the same way in the evening. But Why do birds sing in the twilight?

The early bird catches the worms, a common saying among us humans. But does it really have to be that early? When birds start their day, you cannot fail to hear them in the morning. As soon as it is twilight, you would find the singing of birds is already in full swing. Although most people are still rolling around in bed annoyed, after all, there is still time for the alarm to go off. And the amazing thing is that even for the lively birds it is still too early to catch worms or other animals. That’s one of the reasons why they just chirp first.

When the birds wake up at dawn, they are not immediately able to find food. It is still too dark, too cool, and too humid for the insectivores. The insects need a certain temperature to be active, and that is only reached later. That is why the birds use the cool morning and evening hours to sing. A clever way of organizing the day.

Air And Light Also Play A Role – (Why Do Bird Sing)

But the warbling in the twilight also has other causes. If the humidity is higher, the sound of the song is transported better and can be heard further. This means that the birds can then attract females from a larger area, while male conspecifics hear from far away in which area they are undesirable. Because these are the essential functions of singing, winning a partner, and marking the territory. That is why it is mostly males who sing and almost only during the breeding season.

The third reason for singing in the twilight is the light is that the birds receive certain stimuli from the light of the breaking day. These subconsciously cause them to sing. The ornithologist says it is not yet really clear how strongly which of the three reasons have an impact on the individual bird species, but it is very certain that the interaction of these three factors is very important.

You can almost set the clock for when in which bird species will wake up and start to sing. Most birds sing when it is still very dark. Around 70 minutes before sunrise, the bird called black redstart starts chirping. The barn swallow wakes up an hour before sunrise, a little later the song thrush bird, and then the night is over for robins, cuckoos, blackcaps, gold hammers, blackbirds and wren as well. It is followed by chiffchaff, blue tit, and great tit and finally goldfinch, starling, chaffinch, and greenfinch. Always in the same order, the bird species join the concert at their own time before sunrise. Sleepless minutes at dawn can therefore be used if you have fun recognizing and learning bird calls.

Also Read: Why Don’t Birds Tip Over In Their Sleep?

Birds don’t just sing, they also utter so-called calls. They use them to warn of enemies, for example or use them to communicate with one another. The calls are therefore not particularly pronounced in the mornings and evenings but are distributed throughout the day depending on the situation. They usually differ significantly from singing.