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Birds singing in the early morning & in London - What types of birds? Why? (1 Viewer)

F

FrankL

Active member
Every once and a while I will be working at night and will check in on the Abbey Road web cam in London not far from St. John's Wood.

http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing

I sometimes check when it is 5 to 6 am London time when few cars on the road. You can hear the birds in the background singing in the early morning. I wonder what varieties are up early singing their songs in the surrounding trees.

I know in the States - Mockingbirds can sing all night looking for a mate during mating season. They can be quite annoying. o:D

This may sound naive but anyone know why they are singing early in the morning? Are they communicating with each other? Starting their day?

Sadly it seems like when the day starts that the noise of the world drowns out their songs. :C
 
What you describe is a well-known phenomenon. Google "dawn chorus, birds" & you should get lots of hits.

The following (for example) is from Wikipedia:

"In the UK the vast majority of organized Dawn Chorus walks take place in May, with many beginning as early as 4am. The most often heard species of birds are, in order of them beginning to sing:

Blackbird
Robin
Wren
Tawny Owl
Chaffinch
Common Pheasant
Warblers, including Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler
Song Thrush
Greenfinch
Dunnock
Goldfinch".
 
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fugl said:
What you describe is a well-known phenomenon. Google "dawn chorus, birds" & you should get lots of hits.

The following (for example) is from Wikipedia:

"In the UK the vast majority of organized Dawn Chorus walks take place in May, with many beginning as early as 4am. The most often heard species of birds are, in order of them beginning to sing:

Blackbird
Robin
Wren
Tawny Owl
Chaffinch
Common Pheasant
Warblers, including Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler
Song Thrush
Greenfinch
Dunnock
Goldfinch".
Click to expand...

Thank you. I love it. The sound is wonderful.

Most of us are not up that early so I have to listen on a web cam 3,000 miles away. o:)

I wonder why. I guess marking out terroritory is one reason. I guess they go to sleep early evening and are getting up early ready to start the day. I guess it is the old "early bird catches the worm."

Here is a nice video in spring in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ikIfy7hZs

The web cam is a bit quieter now because of winter.
 
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There was a thread on here a while back discussing why birds sing so early in the morning, but I can't find it right now.
Re "what types of birds", the most likely at this time of year are always Robins, which sing all year round except at moult time (July-August). But there are others that sing on good-weather days in December too.
 
Robins and Blackbirds typically sing all night or early morning

Early morning singers tend to be establishing their territoty and it's a kind of news bulletin of who's new, gone or moved (mayby who;s moved in with who)

However all night street lighting has also allowed these birds particularly to feed /hunt virtually 24 hours unless the weather is poor.
 
I got so engrossed by the web-cam I forgot about the birds. So many people taking photos! I used to hear Robin and Blackbird as the first birds, then Song thrush followed by Wren. They always sang in that order where I lived in South London, I used to love dawn chorus, especially in spring, it was just amazing.
 
I got a German book for my birthday called "Vögel zu Gast im Garten" by Axel Gutjahr. It means "Bird visitors in the Garden" roughly translated. In it he has a clock and you can tell the time by what bird sings.

4.00 Redstart
4.10 Robin
4.15 Blackbird
4.20 Wren
4.30 Cuckoo
4.40 Great Tit
4.50 Chiffchaff
5.00 Chaffinch
5.20 House Sparrow
5.30 Sunrise
5.40 Starling


Andy
 
Does that only work on days where the sun rises at 5:30? ;)

At the moment here I'm hearing Robin, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush as I walk in around 7am in the dark, but have also heard the odd Wren alarm calling too. Nothing better than being out and about before pretty much anyone else on a spring morning enjoying the dawn chorus.
 
Fozzybear said:
Does that only work on days where the sun rises at 5:30? ;)

At the moment here I'm hearing Robin, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush as I walk in around 7am in the dark, but have also heard the odd Wren alarm calling too. Nothing better than being out and about before pretty much anyone else on a spring morning enjoying the dawn chorus.
Click to expand...

nice one fozzybear, I forgot to mention it was in the middle of May.

Andy
 
In about 1959/60, the BBC organised a dawn chorus special on radio, which didn't actually contain any birdsong as far as I remember, but breathless excited commentary as people all over Britain phoned in the times when birds started up. I'm pretty sure the very first bird was a Skylark in Shetland, around 02:30 I think, but that's about all I remember. Anyone else recall that at all ?
 
Not heard birds myself other than Robin and a Dunnock but read that people are hearing Robin, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Wren. Saw a Collared Dove display too.
 
Andy Hurley said:
I got a German book for my birthday called "Vögel zu Gast im Garten" by Axel Gutjahr. It means "Bird visitors in the Garden" roughly translated. In it he has a clock and you can tell the time by what bird sings.

4.00 Redstart
4.10 Robin
4.15 Blackbird
4.20 Wren
4.30 Cuckoo
4.40 Great Tit
4.50 Chiffchaff
5.00 Chaffinch
5.20 House Sparrow
5.30 Sunrise
5.40 Starling
Andy
Click to expand...

No wonder the trains run on time! :-O:-O:-O
MJB
 
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