How Much Birds Sing

BirdNote^®

How Much Birds Sing

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!

[Black-headed Grosbeak song]

This rollicking song belongs to a Black-headed Grosbeak. [Black-headed Grosbeak song] Like most birds, the male grosbeak begins singing in earnest a few days after reaching his traditional nesting grounds in spring. [Black-headed Grosbeak song] And, like most birds, he sings frequently when trying to attract a mate. He’ll sing a bit less while he and his mate incubate eggs, but pick up the pace again after the young hatch. [Black-headed Grosbeak song] By late summer, his singing will cease.

Ever wonder how much a bird sings in one day? Some patient observers have shown that a typical songbird belts out its song between 1,000 and 2,500 times per day. Even though most bird songs last only a few seconds, that’s a lot of warbling!

On nights with a full moon, male Sage Thrashers have been known to proclaim their long-winded songs all night. [Sage Thrasher song] But the North American record-holder may well be the Red-eyed Vireo. One such vireo delivered its short song over 22,000 times in ten hours! [Red-eyed Vireo song]

For Birdnote, I'm Michael Stein.  

Support for BirdNote comes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, presenting its new “Bird Photography” online course, featuring Melissa Groo. Learn more at academy.allaboutbirds.org.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Song of the Black-headed Grosbeak 126546 recorded by T.G. Sander; song of Sage Thrasher 120223 recorded by G.A. Keller; song of the Red-eyed Vireo 110208 recorded by W.L. Hershberger. 
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and produced by John Kessler.         
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org     June 2017/2020 / April 2023   
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  song-04b-2020-6-17      song-04b