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asking the question: why do diurnal birds, those active during the day, sing at night? Not many of them do, but those that suddenly break into full song in the dark of a summer night are famous for it.
It is well known and universally accepted by ornithologists that bird song is both an advertisement and a threat. Males announce their availability to females and proclaim their right to all insects and berries within a given territory.
When the first, a proclamation of accessibility to the opposite sex is over and the pair bond is established, males must continue to sing and defend territorial rights. Thus, birds do with song what man does with threats, fists and guns. But why do some birds break into full song at night?
In going to the books, and I went to many, I could only find a listing of those birds that do sing in the stillness of a summer night.
Teleology is the science that proclaims that all bird behavior has meaning and is shaped by purpose. For me, it won’t work in explaining why birds suddenly break into full song at night. Can it be that the nocturnal song of birds that normally fill the day with music are expressing an overflow of delight in existence?
That is unscientific and anthropomorphic, I know. The older I get, the more I am inclined to think that all aspects of bird behavior and sound is not just a means to an end: the propagation of the species.
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