Why do birds start chirping at almost exactly 5 AM (EST) every day?

Question

It's gotta have something to do with the Earth or Sun or something like that (science) because they don't have alarm clocks - But what is it? They are fairly accurate every morning. And, I've lived in several places in the northeast US for most of my life and it always seems to be the same time!

Answer 1

becuz they probably r used to the environment and time.. Like humans they know when to wake up when sunlight comes in through windows. i also have birds of my own and they do the same thing.. but not exactly @ 5:00 am..

Answer 2

Communication. Bird chirping is a means of communication that is used to warn other birds of predators, indicate when a bird is ripe for mating and to express emotion.

Answer 3

That is when the sun comes up.

once the sun is up, they can see, and they begin their daily acts of survival.

once the sun starts to go down, the birds will also bed down for the night.

Answer 4

The chirping of birds at early dawn has a series of comprehensions to it. Some take it in a romantic regard, while some perceive it as an aesthetic and sometimes religious quality of nature. The literary dimension also thrives on this very phenomenon, celebrating it with countless pieces of prose and poetry.

The conventional opinion in the Middle Ages about the singing of birds was that the birds chirped early in the morning to praise their Creator, sweetly exalting their Lord for all the beauties he had adorned the entire world with. Another standpoint stated that birds sang a welcome song for the sun, expressing their keenness for the sunrise, which symbolized food, warmth and protection.

As for the modern scientific viewpoint, it is devoid of any romantic, religious or aesthetic aspects. It states that the dawn chorus signifies the warning signals given by each bird as it announces the re-establishment of its territory for the purpose of courtship, nesting and food getting. All of these are the fundamental and basic steps to breeding and the dawn chorus is just a way to warn other counterparts to keep away from their respective territories.

Also this piece here, talking about roosters...

Janet Hinshaw of the Wilson Ornithological Society: "Most of the crowing takes place in [early] morning, as does most singing, because that is when the birds are most active, and most of the territorial advertising takes place then. Many of the other vocalizations heard throughout the day are for other types of communication, including flocking calls, which serve to keep members of a flock together and in touch if they are out of sight from one another."

And this from WikiAnswers:

Why do roosters crow at daylight?

That is a most interesting question and one that probably has several factors. One that is most significant in my opinion has to do with the hormone that makes all birds sing, or in this case crow. The hormone is testosterone. In the early hours of morning a rooster's testosterone level probably goes up- along with some others.

Biologists have a theory that birds sing or crow to let other birds know where they are so they can space themselves far enough apart so they don't overcrowd each other. You could think of this a defending their territory, and rooster are very protective of their hens. They often fight to the death with other roosters.

So we might interpret the rooster crowing at the beginning of the day to clear out rival males by crowing really loud and scaring them away. They do this in the daytime because they sleep at night and would not engage in battle in the darkness since they are diurnal, active in the daytime.

Answer 5

Well birds usually start to sing when the sun starts to come up and they do also have an internal "clock" (circadian rhythm).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_r...

Birds sing first thing in the morning to let neighboring birds know that they have survived the night and are still around to protect their territory, mate, or chicks.  They may also sing so that their mate or babies can locate them.