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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dram7" data-source="post: 1699319" data-attributes="member: 70152">Right. here we go seeing you are getting hot under the collar.I can only comment on the dawn chorus in my area. eg blackbird, song & missel thrush, chaffinch , skylark etc.At 11 I was interested in only 2 things. nesting and fishing. When I went through the estate early morning to fish there was always one or more blachbirds nests in the big hedge. You could see the brooding birds tail.It was brown. On return during the day it was black.The fact of observation is this. Many bird species not necessarily songbirds have a shift system of brooding. Always the female takes the nightshift. Blackbirds change shift around 9am & the male sits during the day tillaround 5pm. Song thrushes do the same Chaffinches are more erratic but the female always sits nightshift.Other birds change shift similarly so even if I don't know the male from the female e.g robins I can surely assume the female is overnight.We don't have nightingales up here but I am willing to bet the female sits nights. NOW AS YOU MAY HAVE NOW GUESSED, IT IS PREDOMINENTLY THE MALE THAT SINGS. He sings at dawn then feeds for a bit at full light. He then relieves the female who you must have observed appearing on the lawn around 9am & the countrside falls silent,Pigeons you can set your watch by them Female 10pm - 10am. Male the rest. Same for crows etc.When the young hatch, the female still covers or tends the nest at night & both are then busy during the day feeding. So the only time the male has to sing is youve guessed it Dawn & duskDo not listen to anything in life until you can prove it yourselfThanks all for you interest. Marks out of ten gratefully received</blockquote>

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