Why Are Birds Singing At Night

Wow, this is crazy, just the other night I noticed the exact same thing and thought it was really odd, Im in Ireland by the way.
Dont know why but when I heard it I got a bad feeling, and seeing this thread gave me shivers for no apparent reason.Weird.

Something is brewing. I can sense it. I don't what, but something. My hunch is a large natural disaster IE major volcanic eruptions or earthquakes soon. I've been noticing the same thing about the birds here in the southern U.S. I can often times sense when something is about to happen. It's not something I can call upon, but rather it comes to me.

[edit on 21-3-2009 by ufo reality]

It's really weird that all of us noticed this phenomenon recently... I first heard it a few months ago at my girlfriend's place where at about 2 AM we heard singing birds and we thought... this is odd... Since then I keep hearing it every night at about 3 AM. Can this be a sign for the beginning of... something?

reply to post by Retseh


A fellow Phoenician here, Retseh.
Like you (And apparently, it seems, the rest of the world) I've noticed the same avian phenomena both here in the Biltmore area and at my other lodging in Eastern Mesa and thought, weird though it is, must be some unique desert related occurrence.
Despite being in the "city proper" of Phoenix, some sections of Biltmore are actually wooded tracts of older growth pines, palms and other flora. There as not been a discernible environmental change here in many years, i.e. new construction, increased traffic, etc.
The area in Mesa I refer to is near the 202 and Recker. A typical residential neighborhood, unremarkable in its features.
At both locales:
Every evening near dusk the birds start their chorus, and they aren't shy about it. They sing loud and proud throughout the night and well into the dawn hours.
But, not all have become nocturnal. As I sit here writing (it's 4:40 pm, afternoon) there are birds singing and whistling outside my window.
Maybe they sing in shifts ... Daytime, evening and graveyard? lol

Great thread, Retseh!
Flag and Star to you, my brother!

Our birds here in central us seem fine.The only thing I hear at night is the owls and the other birds usually show up at about 6am wanting their food.We usually have robins,blue jays,blackbirds,crows,cardinals,lots of small birds and we have a pair of doves. Now this is what I find strange and have never really found an answer for it if any one knows.A couple of years ago I was caring for an elderly women and over the baby monitor heard something hitting into the window I went to her room and it was a blackbird slamming itself into the window over and over again this was at 1am and this women cried for the rest of the night convinced she was going to die.I have never understood what would cause a bird to do this in the wee hours of the morning.

I noticed this last summer. I live in in Wisconsin near a semi-industrial area with way too much lighting at night so I just figured the birds were confused about the light issue, however I've lived in the same place for over twenty years and only noticed it a summer or two ago. Some birds tend to get really noisy around 1 am so I just assumed they were the earliest of the early birds

I remember occasionally hearing birds at night when younger, but not so much as I notice now.

My entire life I have naturally been a nocturnal creature, although much of society dictates that we be active in daytime. Some of us march to the beat of a different internal body clock, so maybe it's possible that some species which "normally" are either nocturnal or diurnal may also have their own little chemical cocktail that dictates their own unique on/off times on a unique time schedule.

It's interesting that this seems to be happening on a scale where so many are noticing a change. I kind of wonder if there may be some sort of tie-in with the bee issue. Maybe certain fruit type plants/trees are behaving differently with changes in pollination, therefore affecting the bird life?

[edit on 3/21/2009 by shockedonlooker]

This is an interesting thread, thanks for doing it.
I'm in a rural area in the northeastern part of the US. Last summer, I had a bird in my yard that would start tweeting pretty much every night after sunset. I always keep my windows open and would hear him singing into the wee hours of the morning sometimes. The first couple times I noticed it, I figured the neighbor's cat was setting him off, then just figured it to be one of those night singing birds and didn't think about it again really. Then one night, I had a friend over and we were sitting outside just chatting and she made a comment on the bird tweeting, and said she thought it was weird, then mentioned she heard birds singing late at night at her house too. I agreed with her that it was weird yes, but that they were probably just evening songbirds or something , and that we just never noticed it before. She agreed and we never mentioned it again...I'm not a bird expert so I don't know
However one thing I thought was strange and felt it worth mentioning, was what my father told me last fall about his neighbor's rooster. He said for a few weeks it would wake him up every night in the middle of the night. Even tho it was ticking him off, he found it weird to say the least. I do too.

I don't know why, but that seems eerily creepy.

Anyways, if we keep urbanizing the world like this, it'll eventually be the end of other animals. We are already making birds resort to singing at night and if we have 24/7 businesses and jobs, birds won't be able to sing at all and the only way we can witness nature is through old videos.

I thought it was normal, birds singing at night. Oh, not the full variety chorus of the daylight hours, but one or maybe a pair can be heard near our house quite regularly. Our roosters crow several times during the night as well.

For several years a Mockingbird roosted in a tree outside our bedroom, some nights the little beggar sang half the night. If it was too disturbing we'd just knock on the wall and he'd hush. We don't know what happened to him, if anything, but he was missed. Now the one that mimics our phone ringing, he can get on my nerves.

I think basically it's just as in the day, if birds feel safe enough and feel like it, they sing. And if a bird feels safe enough to sing in my yard, I like it. My own little night watch, '1 o'clock and all is well'.

Originally posted by mxxpwr
On the subject of birds
I don't think it's just the song birds, because my daughter pointed out to me that we have been seeing Canada geese flying south from where we are in the Fraser Valley near the US border for a few weeks now and they usually fly north at this time of year.

The Geese you are witnessing are the same exact species which has their Major wintering ground all over my location.

I would dare say that the Southerly Migration Pattern is still in full effect, due to the extremely long, Cold Winter we have had all over the United States and Canada. The Cold is the primary factor for the Geese Migrating Southward, and I can attest to the fact that even though it is about to warm-up, we have had a Past week or so full of February like Temperatures. Even today, when it was predicted to "Warm Up", our High fell short of 50 Degree Fahrenheit, and landed somewhere in the Upper 40's.

Then again, the Geese you are witnessing might have stayed North so long due to their having found a sustainable food source (i.e., Emanating From People). There are plenty of cases of such incidents on record.

Also, even though I live in the wintering grounds of the Canadian Geese, we ALWAYS have at least a certain number of flocks that stay here year round.

Originally posted by dee132423
Our birds here in central us seem fine.The only thing I hear at night is the owls and the other birds usually show up at about 6am wanting their food.We usually have robins,blue jays,blackbirds,crows,cardinals,lots of small birds and we have a pair of doves. Now this is what I find strange and have never really found an answer for it if any one knows.A couple of years ago I was caring for an elderly women and over the baby monitor heard something hitting into the window I went to her room and it was a blackbird slamming itself into the window over and over again this was at 1am and this women cried for the rest of the night convinced she was going to die.I have never understood what would cause a bird to do this in the wee hours of the morning.

Same here, all is well as far as I am concerned in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Blackbird you mentioned could have been slamming into the window for any number of apparent reasons. It could have been suffering from a disease, or it could have thought that it saw something resembling prey through or on the window (i.e., a Worm, or Insect). Birds often slam into windows during Migration, or when in search of Prey. They simply do not see the windows.

At OTHER times however, it is their very own reflection in the window which causes them to attack it. Birds can be territorial, and they will attempt to chase away a rival, especially during Mating season.

I actually witnessed a Half-Dozen birds which had dropped dead out of trees around or near my property a few Summers back. I saw their bodies scattered on the ground in different areas, and I immediately concluded that it was due to West Nile. Of course I called Animal Control, but they never did anything (Typical)

I think this thread busts the myth that birds only sing during the day. The original article made it out to be noise pollution and such, and cited evidence that the cities where they didn't sing at night. Now people are speaking up about birds from places all over, even where it is quite in the day.

I had no idea on this topic at all, and all I did was a quick google search and I found out that it's not uncommon for birds to sing at night, that they even migrate mostly at night and in groups and many other things.

More likely is - you never noticed them until recently. And if anything, that is the only "something" going on. Which I think you can actually expect a good deal of in the future. When I "woke up", I started to notice LOTS of new things I never really noticed or paid attention to before. Things that were always there, right in front of me and not really hidden, but I just completely overlooked it. My entire world perspective changed in what I "see", but it doesn't actually "look" different, the world didn't change - I did.

Walk into a room with your eyes closed and then you suddenly open your eyes, the room itself didn't change, it was the same as it always was. What changed was you and what you noticed. What changed was your perception of the room.

Personally I expect people to "wake up" and such like this. Not sure I was really thinking so much about birds singing at night lol. Did provide a pretty literal example of it however.

Think I'll keep an ear out for hearing birds at night. I grew up in the country and heard lots of noises and such at night. But the crickets, frogs and cicadas are so loud at night, doubt I would have heard birds. It was actually louder outside at night than it was during the day in the country.




[edit on 22-3-2009 by badmedia]

reply to post by kupoliveson

Very interesting. I live on a very isolated island in SE Asia and have noticed the jungle birds singing all night for 6 mnts now. Although I was unsure if this was common, I did notice it very suddenly afetr never noticing birds singing over the last 10 years.

On a side note I noticed very strange behaviour on my island in the past 6 mnts. Huge monitor lizards that are virtually impossible to get near are walking confidently near people. They are wild and have no contact with the people and all the animals seem to go into a frenzied orgy of calls for no apparent reason, including the insects which generally only make noise enmasse at sunrise and sunset.

reply to post by Retseh


Well, I've noticed birdsong in the early AM (1, 2, 3am...) for years now. I sleep with the window open during the winter because it's cooler and you hear one or two.

I figure they are conforming to an urban schedule: streetlights, porchlights, cars, city lights reflected on a cloudy evening...they stay up later in the city. Also, I mean, it's clear that there are applications for their birdsong...it's not random, they use it for social reasons. We don't "speak their language" so we can't understand why or what they are saying, but I'm sure it could very well have to do with a prowling cat...it could also be that the birds we hear are hot and bothered and just want some action. Any ornithologists here?

Great post! I just thought I'd add that I live in the NE US and I first noticed the birds singing at night in (roughly) late '07. I thought it was weird and so did everybody else in my family.
They start up a few times a month now. In fact, just last night I heard quite a few at dusk.

I live in New York and a few days ago around 3:30 in the morning I heard sparrows singing. I had to go and look out the window I thought it was getting light outside. I thought it seemed odd. Now I know its not just me.

I'm in Yorkshire, England... and i noticed this a few days ago. They sing at 4am always, but 1am? never heard them sing at that time...

There may be a simple explanation:

Nightingales are named so because they frequently sing at night as well as during the day. The name has been used for well over 1,000 years, being highly recognizable even in its Anglo-Saxon form - 'nihtingale'. It means 'night songstress'. Early writers assumed the female sang; but in fact, we have learned it is the male. The male nightingale is known for his singing, to the extent that human singers are sometimes admiringly referred to as nightingales; the song is loud, with an impressive range of whistles, trills and gurgles. Its song is particularly noticeable at night because few other birds are singing. This is why its name (in several languages) includes "night". Only unpaired males sing regularly at night, and nocturnal song is likely to serve attracting a mate. Singing at dawn, during the hour before sunrise, is assumed to be important in defending the bird's territory. Nightingales sing even more loudly in urban or near-urban environments, in order to overcome the background noise. The most characteristic feature of the song is a loud whistling crescendo, absent from the song of Thrush Nightingale. It has a frog-like alarm call.

en.wikipedia.org...

Saw this thread several nights ago. Nature is crazy, period. I've lived in the same house almost ten years, and a few months back I was hearing birds sing at night for the first time here. Odd, yes. But the things I've seen, I'm not amazed by it.

We are changing our world through radio, microwave signals etc. Only a fool would think all our technology, waste, pollution, will not wreak havoc on a living, breathing planet full of living breathing beings ;-)

These next ten years are going to be very interesting. I think the earth and it's creatures are gonna get pissed off.

reply to post by dave7933


the nightingale is a possibility but i don't think it is native to the americas or australia so it doesn't explain the singing in those regions.
if it is the nightingale that is responsible for all the singing i'm hearing their numbers have exploded.

this thread is great, the logical explanations just don't sit right, i love it when that happens. i think we have a mystery here gang.

it's interesting that most of the people who responded to this thread dismissed the birds singing at the wrong time as just something they hadn't noticed before. i did the same thing but i was disturbed because i would have put myself down as somebody who would have noticed birds singing all night.

just to be clear about my experience, when i say i hear birds singing i mean i hear a bird chorus simular to the dawn chorus in volume, it isn't an odd bird that has been disturbed.