After long, harsh winters, the Spring Season with flowers and greenery all around not only brings joy and happiness to human beings, but this is the phase of the year which also makes birds and animals sing and dance in ecstasy. As spring season comes in full swing, we hear different species of bird singing joyous songs throughout the lively season. Now the question arises, why do birds sing or what influences birds to produce those sweet and sharp sounds.
There are different theories, some general and other scientific, which illustrate the reasons behind the singing of birds. Songs have long been associated with courtship and mating. As they say “in the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” same thing goes for birds as well, as they build nests, mate, lay eggs and raise off-springs during the spring season. Usually, the breeding cycle begins with migratory male birds arriving their nesting places, establishing a nesting territory and defending it against their competitors and singing sweet songs to woo female birds of the same species.
There is another theory, which suggests that music is a spontaneous phenomenon, and not adaptive, and birds sing simply because they enjoy singing. This theory appears a bit scientifically controversial, for David Rothenberg, a philosopher and jazz musician, argues that bird song much like human music has the formal properties of music and is motivated by pleasure, which depicts the emotional lives of birds.
While the research team, led by Takashi Yoshimura of the Nagoya University in Japan, came up with a scientific theory, which illustrates that birds start singing in the spring because of a biological response to stretched days. According to this research, specific brain cells prompt a series of hormonal reactions after birds remain in light for longer periods, which arouses strong mating desire and encourage them to find a partner by singing sweet songs.
