As the City Grows Quiet, Listen for the Birds

The slowing pace of urban life gives us a chance to stop and listen to the birds.  Their cheerful songs are small reminders of our abiding connection with nature.

As if trying to bring us comfort, the  American Robin's string of repeated syllables sounds to our ears  like, “cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up!”

Though it sounds nice to us,  the  explosion of  bird song in spring is actually a testosterone free-for-all made up mostly of male birds vying for dominance! 

​That cute “cheep chirrup!” of a House Sparrow, (common throughout the U.S.) might actually be conveying a not-so-cute message.

Songbirds use a vocal organ called a syrinx to make an incredible range of sounds.

The male Brown Thrasher has a repertoire of at least 1000 distinct songs!

Birds learn language from their parents, and may even have rules of grammar. ​

Birds of the same species even have various accents based on where they are from!

The male Superb Lyrebird makes some of the most complex sounds of any creature on earth. He is a perfect mimic of other birds, as well as human-made sounds like a car engine or the revving of a chainsaw!

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Most urban dwellers are more likely to encounter a pigeon. Their gentle cooing has an outsized effect on some people, like Nikola Tesla, who once fell in love with a pigeon.