Birding 101: Finding Birds Any Time of Day

BirdNote®
Birding 101: Finding Birds Any Time of Day
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

    [Morning bird chorus]

If the early bird gets the worm, then the early birder gets the birds, right? Morning is a great time for birding — songbirds begin their chorus just before dawn, and many species start looking for food at first light.

But not everyone is willing or able to get up at the crack of dawn. And that’s okay – it’s not the only time to experience birds. Singing often continues throughout the morning, and some species, like American Robins, keep the show going until sunset.

    [American Robin song]

High noon is a great time to see daytime predators like hawks on the hunt for small mammals—

    [Red-shouldered Hawk call]

—or cormorants in the water diving for fish.
    
    [Splash]

As sunset draws near, watch for birds that become active in the twilight, like Common Nighthawks sweeping the sky for insects.

    [Common Nighthawk calls]

And if you’re a night owl, well, look and listen for real owls. They’re wide awake at midnight.

    [Barred Owl song]

So if you missed the sunrise, don’t worry. The day is long, and birds are all around us.

For BirdNote, I’m Jonese Franklin.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. ML305942 Environmental recorded by Wil Hershberger, American Robin ML168300 recorded by Wil Hershberger, Red-shouldered Hawk ML105335 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller, Common Nighthawk ML105711 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller, and Barred Owl ML229071 recorded by Bob McGuire.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote April 2024
Narrator: Jonese Franklin

ID# birding-35-2024-04-29        birding-35