Anyone know what birds sing at night and why? I’m sitting here working and starting at 3AM or so and there was this bird signing his head off outside. He has been singing for several hours now. Sometimes he stops and either another one starts or he moves farther away to start again. It sounds like a Mockingbird (I’m in Texas). I’ve heard this before at night but it is very rare.
Is this some sort of way of getting a little late-night action? It sure sounds happy… But why mate at night when you can do so during daylight (I’m speaking of birds here, mind you)? Is it angry or sick?
I see tons of Mockingbirds during the day, and several nest around here. Yet I only hear one or two when they start chirping at night.
Anyone know of other birds that do this and the reasons they do it?
SF
Nightingales sing at night.
Male birds sing to mark territory, not just to attract a female to mate with. My WAG on why a bird might sing at night is because something wakes him up and he realizes he hasn’t patrolled his boundaries for a while, so he rattles off a few bars.
Or maybe what wakes him up is the fellow from the territory next door, prowling around. When homo sapiens hears a prowler, he reaches for the pistol in the night stand; when Mimus polyglottos hears a prowler, he sings.
And actually, from a bird’s POV, 3 a.m. isn’t “the middle of the night”, it’s “dawn”.
Seconding the Mocker.
I had a single mocker that would roost in the tree outside my bedroom window, and since his little heart out at about 1:30 every morning. Likely an unattached male, since there was no nest or other bird in the tree.
Beautiful singer. Nasty to the neighbor’s cat. 
I miss him.
And apparently it is unattached males mockers that sing at night. I guess they wake up, realize one is a lonely number and start broadcasting (Derrickson 1988 Condor 90:592-606).
Male Marsh Wrens (Cistothorus palustris) also sing at night, but it looks like both attached and unattached males sing (Barclay et al 1985 Condor 87:418-422). Probably a territory/mate guard thing.
Well, shoot. I need to preview.
Most song birds do not sing at night, but the unattached male mocker in the Spring is the exception. And what an exception! I’ve had one singing out my window at about 3am every day now for a week. Hope he hurries up and finds a mate. Hey, but what the Hell. It’s Nature. Enjoy.
Male birds usually sing first to attract mates and then to announce their territories. That’s why you usually hear them sing around mating time: usually in the Spring. Now’s the time to hear the migrating warblers, but in the fall migration, you don’t hear them.
While we’re on birds, not to hijack this thread, but it appears threadbare now anyway, I heard on NPR today that there is a sparrow in Canada that sings both the songs of the black-throated green warbler and the white-throated sparrow. The theory is that as a babe, the bird also heard the song of the warbler and now sings both. A tape was recorded with both songs heard consecutively, apparently by the same bird. Any ornithologists have any comments on this?
Yes, I have seen reports on that somewhere, as well as reading of other cases. Wouldn’t that also be possible with inter-species hybrids, where the bird was exposed to both parents?
Of course, right now I cannot find anything since my entire work library is packed in boxes: we’re getting new carpeting to replace the one that was completely flooded two weeks ago.
screech-owl (who is not looking forward to unpacking boxes tomorrow, but at least I can organize them again…)