Bird Music

Have you ever spent time really listening to birdsong?

Certain times of day and seasonally, birds create the most music.  For hours before dawn mockingbirds sing non stop. Many birds begin their musicals at noon. At sunset they unite once more in chours.

According to Wilson Flagg, bird song may be divided into four classes. Canaries and Bobolinks sing rapid notes. Their songs flow uninterrupted, filled with fervor and ecstasy.  Moderate singers like the robin employ slow notes without pauses or rests in their different strains.

The interrupted singers don't modulate their notes with rapidity. They make decided pauses between strains. Mockingbirds are the marathoners in this third class.  The fourth class contains warblers whose notes consist of one or two strains not combined into a song like a bluebird.

Listen today and write what you hear in the dee dees. phreeps, and trills.  Let birdsong inspire a poem or story.