The dawn chorus is the most amazing spectacle of the birding world. It is what makes us get up early to be there when it happens. There are mysteries around it and different theories as to why this happens. Multiple theories may apply, all of which converge to create a truly amazing experience.

The main thing to understand is that light levels cause different birds to wake up at different times. As they wake up they start singing, mainly in spring and sumer. As each species wakes up, they add to the dawn chorus causing it to get louder and more impressive as they light levels rise. For this reason, an overcast day will have a muted dawn chorus. This is probably due to the fact that as the light levels are rising slower, the first birds finish singing before the next ones start. This drags out the event and results in fewer species all singing at the same time.

The main theory behind the dawn chorus is that as soon as a bird wakes up, it immediately starts singing to announce to its neighbors that it is still allive and its territory is still occupied.

For migrants, many of them migrate at night when it is cooler. This conserves energy. At dawn, males start singing immediatley to all compete for females that may have arrived overmight on migration.

Put these two theories together with a few more and you have a truly amazing sound experience right outside your door ever day throughout spring and summer.

To get a sense of just how spectacluar this can be, watch the youtube video below to experience a dawn chorus recorded at the amazing Ongoye Forest in KZN.