Why do birds sing at dawn? A study from the Western Ghats unravel the morning chorus

Have you ever wondered why so many birds choose quiet, dawn hours to sing the loudest? Intrigued by this mystery, a team of scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Project Dhvani in India took it upon themselves to unravel what drives this morning chorus.

- 

They discovered that it's not just the calm winds or cooler temperatures that set off this daily routine — it's what the birds eat and how fiercely they defend their territory that make the biggest difference.

The team studied 69 bird species across 43 forest sites using advanced audio monitoring technology, revealing that territorial and omnivorous birds are far more likely to sing at dawn. This suggests that social behaviors—not just environmental conditions—are the primary reason for the surge in morning vocal activity.

The research titled “Why is the early bird early? An evaluation of hypotheses for avian dawn-biased vocal activity,” is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

To collect the data, the team placed microphones throughout the forest to automatically record bird vocalizations throughout the day—technology often referred to as passive acoustic monitoring.

This technology records audio that researchers later listen to and catalogue which species vocalized during the day, said the study.