The Songs Of Spring
By Crede Calhoun Chief Guide and Camp Director for Camp Earth and owner of WindrushOnline Art Gallery.

Why do birds sing?

They sing for communication to other birds, to establish their territory and to attract mates. Bird song is musical or songlike to our ears, and in the bird kingdom most often males are the sex that usually makes bird song. We can't judge what they are thinking when they sing but sometimes to me it certainly seems like they are happy.

In the Spring birds are setting up their families so they sing alot. After the winter we just had it is very refreshing to again hear all these birds calling and singing.

Have you ever noticed in the early morning how birds seem to greet the day. If you have ever been awake at or before dawn you may have noticed that this is an intense time for birds to sing. It's almost as if they are expressing their joy for a new day by singing and singing and singing, and then as the sun rises they quiet down.

Some birds like the Black Capped Chickadee and the Blue Jay serve as guardians of the outdoors by alerting other birds of danger in the area. I am sure you have the Blue Jay screeching as the cat slinks around in the nearby bushes. If you make a 'phisssh phisssh phissh' sound with your breath and mouth you can imitate the Chickadees distress call. If you do this sound out in the woods and sit quietly lots and lots of small songbirds will fly to you and perch in the nearby trees to see what's up. After they realize it is just you they will fly away.

Chickadee

Birds make two types of noises, calls and songs. Calls are usually in response to a specific situation, (like the Chickadees and Blue Jays distress call) and they are usually short in duration. Both sexes and immature birds make calls. Calls can mean many things like alarms, feeding, flocking calls, or aggressive calls. Scientific studies show that are many useful messages in their small selection of sounds.

Bird song may have been what stimulated humans into developing music.

All the native Thrushes including the Swainsons and Wood Thrush share the habit of singing at dusk. Their performances are easy to discover because most birds are silent at this time. Poet Emily Tolman wrote a poem about the evening and dawn performance of the Hermit Thrush.

"In the deep, solemn wood, at dawn I hear
a voice serene and pure, now far, now near,
singing sweetly, singing slowly,
hoy; oh, holy, holy;

Again at evening hush, now near, now far-
Oh, tell me, art though voice or bird or star?
Sounding sweetly, sounding slowly,

Hole; oh, holy, holy."

Hermit Thrush

Many expert birdwatchers rely on the identification of the birds songs and calls to know what birds are nearby. Birds can be hard to stop with your eyes but if you know the songs you can walk through the woods and know what birds are there just by listening.

"The Birds I heard (today) sung
as freshly as if it had been the
first morning of creation."
Henry David Thoreau

The rapidly repeated phrases of the Carolina Wren is another exceptional singer. My wife and I once had a family of baby wrens living in a paint can hanging under the eve of our porch roof. One day I bumped the can and about 6-7 baby wrens came flying out. I think they were about ready to leave the nest because they flew pretty good. For the next several days we had all these baby wrens perched all around our house. Wrens are adorable tiny little birds with really short tails. In Norse traditions it was believed that the Wren was connected to the Thor the Norse Thunder God. You can make a birdhouse for wrens and attract them to your home. You have to make it just right and the size of the entrance hole is critical.

Carolina Wren

Some enthusiastic bird watchers will travel all over the world to add to their Life List. Sometimes a bird will appear in an unusual place. Sometimes birds get blown of course by strong storms and end up in places that the species is not normally found. There is a hotline that calls these fanatical bird watchers to tell them of a rare sighting, and some nutty bird watchers will travel from all over the world to spot and identify the rare bird.

Take the time to notice birds and take time to listen when they sing. Your life will be much richer when you open your ears to the sounds of nature.