Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Spring Brings New Bird Songs
House Finch perched on branch, looking over its shoulder showing red-colored head and throat
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Night Singers

After dark, when most birds are asleep, a few break into song
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Eastern Whip-poor-will perched on branch
© Tom Murray

A bird like the Whip-poor-will is a true night bird – feeding, and mating, and nesting in the dark. But for about a week each spring, male Yellow-breasted Chats also sing in the darkness as they call out to the arriving females — their potential mates. There are other night singers, too!

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®

Night Singers

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Night sounds, such as crickets and a Great Horned Owl]

After dark, when most birds are asleep, a few break into song. Like this Whip-poor-will. [Whip-poor-will song] The Whip-poor-will is a true night bird – feeding, mating, and nesting in the dark. [Whip-poor-will song]

But a few songbirds that are active during the day also sing at night.

In North America, for about a week each spring, the Yellow-breasted Chat sings in the darkness. [Yellow-breasted Chat song] Chats are mainly active during the day, but they migrate at night. So when most other birds are silent, the chat has the sound-stage largely to itself. That means a singing male has better odds of catching the ear of a mate. Chats also sing shorter and lower-pitched songs at night, with longer gaps between them. It’s a pattern that carries well over long distances.

Once all the females have arrived for the season, the male chats go quiet at night. But not the Whip-poor-will. [Whip-poor-will song]

Did you know that you can hear BirdNote day or night? Catch it on Apple Podcasts or on our website, birdnote.org.

I’m Michael Stein.

###
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Narrator: Michael Stein
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. Great Horned Owl recorded by W.R. Fish. Whip-poor-will and Yellow-breasted Chat recorded by G.A. Keller.

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org     July 2016/2019     Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# song-05-2008-07-24    song-05c

Research cited: Canterbury, Jacqueline Lee. Songs of the Wild: Temporal and Geographical Distinctions in the Acoustic Properties of the Songs of the Yellow-Breasted Chat. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Nebraska, November, 2007.
 

Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsvocalization

Related Resources

Nightingale - More at Royal Society for the Protection of BirdsSign up for the BirdNote podcastEastern Whip-poor-will - More at All About BirdsYellow-breasted Chat - More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Eastern Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus)

Caprimulgus vociferus

Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens)

Icteria virens

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

Luscinia megarhynchos

Sights & Sounds

Related Field Notes

February 10, 2020

Tweets 'n' Squawks: Learn How to Identify Birds by Song

By Adam Sedgley
Nothing signals spring quite like singing birds.
December 18, 2017

What does it take to record the world’s birds?

By Gerrit Vyn

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy