Dawn Chorus: What we can learn from birds

The other night, I couldn’t sleep so I went to sit in the living room and do some reading. It was about 4 a.m. The windows were open due to it being a warm June night. A nice breeze was blowing in. It is a peaceful time of night when everyone is, or should be, sleeping. There is no traffic. No car alarms going off. No sirens. No music blaring. No lawn mowers. No sound of cars whizzing by. No motorcycles. No human voices. No dogs barking.

Beautiful. It got me thinking about Henry David Thoreau and simplicity - how all we need are the simple things in life. I’m not awake often at this time anymore. And when I would be awake at this time, I didn’t really take the time to appreciate the silence. But, tonight, at this moment, I was enjoying and soaking in the tranquility. Ahhhhhh.

But then all of a sudden, I heard a bird start chirping, then another, and another. Before I knew it, it sounded like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. What just happened? The silence I had witnessed minutes before had been replaced by a cacophony of chirps.

It got me thinking, what are these birds so happy about this early in the morning? Why aren’t they sleeping in? What do they have to do that they have to keep to a schedule? Do they have to set an alarm to wake up at this ungodly hour? This is absurd.

I had to research this. They sounded so happy. We all know that one person in our lives who is a “morning person.” They are always smiling and joking at the water cooler. They go “ahhhh,” loudly, when they have that first sip of coffee. They hum and whistle. They talk your ear off.

“Leave me alone. Let me wake up,” you feel like shouting. Sometimes, if they catch you on a bad day, you don’t hold back and you snap at them. They back off and give you a strange look like, “Okay.”

But, maybe, just maybe, that “morning person” was a bird in a previous life. Who else is that happy just before sunrise? Maybe they know something we don’t know or appreciate.

So why are birds so happy and chipper in the morning? I found a few reasons online. Some have been debunked, some haven’t. The theory I like the most, and which cannot be proven or debunked, is that birds are just grateful to wake up in the morning and their singing together is a form of celebration. They appreciate the fact that they woke up to another day - so let’s sing at the top of our lungs!

The other theories are that they are marking their territory. They are showing off their good health. They are attempting to attract a mate. They are hungry after a night of sleeping and they want their breakfast.

Or, another theory I agree with, our awareness of their singing is just the fact that there are no other sounds at that time of the morning. Birds chirp all the time. It is just that at 4 a.m., there are not those other sounds like I mentioned in the opening paragraph to drown them out. Go outside right now, and if you listen and focus real closely, you can still hear the birds singing. They don’t just shut up once humans wake up.

For the purpose of this article, I like to focus on the gratefulness part (which is not listed in the graphic above). That is what we could all learn from the “dawn chorus” of birds. Yes, the chorus of the birds chirping in the morning actually has a name - the dawn chorus. Sounds like the name of a band, and, in essence, it sort of is. Who is the lead singer I wonder? And will the band all get along? Will there be a VH1 special on them someday?

But we all should take a moment and look to the heavens when we wake up and be thankful for the Higher Power allowing us to open our eyes to a new day. Say what you will for what is going on in your life, opening your eyes in the morning is far better than the alternative. Every day, almost 200,000 people die across the world. That is 200,000 people that did not open their eyes today. It should put everything else in perspective.

So, if you are not a “morning person,” you may want to consider being one. Be like a bird, and when you wake up, sing your favorite song. You will feel better. And others will join along and be happy with you. Before you know it, the world would be a happier place. Just like that first bird singing in the morning, they are joined by a second and a third, and before you know it, the dawn sky is enveloped in their singing. So let’s envelope the world in happiness, joy, and song. Start with yourself.