To be a bit freaked out by bird song at midnight?

[WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe]

I’m in bed but there is a very loud bird(s) singing away outside. It been happening the last few nights but in the 20 years we’ve lived in this house I’ve never heard it at this time of night.

It’s freaking me out a bit! What sort of birds would be twittering away at midnight and why have they turned up after 20 years. We’re not rural and they are at the front of the house so only a couple of smaller trees in peoples drives/gardens.

I think it's just them reacting to light pollution

OMG me too. Thought I was hearing things but definitely birds.
Very weird.

I've noticed this recently too, having never previously heard birdsong at this time of night.

Of course it's probably just my ignorance in not noticing before.

That’s so strange, I’ve just had the exact same conversation with my DH! It is freaky, isn’t it! Only heard it the last few night but so unsettling to hear birds singing away in the dead of night

omg I've been hearing it a lot recently too, especially in the run-up to christmas. It's past midnight now and seems quiet, but I was definitely hearing it a lot in the past few weeks.

I wonder if climate change is making some exotic species migrate over here for some reason and their body clocks are a bit off lol hence the night-time singing! I've not seen any unusual bird species around but anyway, it has freaked me out a bit too .

@MamaWeasel

I think it's just them reacting to light pollution

This. It's the same where I have been staying over Christmas, lots of lights on all night. Now I am back home it's quiet again. Poor birds.

Same!!! I have wanted to ask as I was beginning to think I was hallucinating. Is it the warmer weather? The light pollution? (I’m Home Counties?)

Nightingale? Download a birdsong identifier app and see whos singing and whether theyre usually active at night

Robins - they react to light pollution and can sing through the night. If not a robin then a blackbird. I live rurally with not to awful light pollution but our robin sings under the street light all night.

Could be robins. They sing a lot at midnight round here.

Light pollution plus outdoor Christmas lights being left on really mess about with their rhythms.

There have been quite a few threads on this lately, reducing light pollution is something we should all be thinking about the changes we can each make.

Yes, same here!

It's usually seaguls here. Those squawky bastards never seem to sleep!
I have heard little bird recently though, which is a bit odd. We don't even I've in a big town, and putlr little street has Hardy any lights, although they did put new led lights in the park behind us a few years ago. That could be why.

Same here. It starts about 1pm and has only been going on since Xmas. The street lighting is the same as always so wondered whether it was the additional light from some of the neighbours enthusiastic outdoor Xmas lighting?

I thought it was just me! They have been going from around 11pm.

There something a bit foreboding about it. Glad I’m not the only one noticing though! I’ll have to try to identify what bird it is. We get a few robins in the back garden every day so maybe that. There’s a pigeon couple in the leylandi but they mostly show up for a quick shag on the fence during the day!

@KloppsTeeth

Could be robins. They sing a lot at midnight round here.

Light pollution plus outdoor Christmas lights being left on really mess about with their rhythms.

There have been quite a few threads on this lately, reducing light pollution is something we should all be thinking about the changes we can each make.

I love robins singing. So pretty. I like to whistle back to them 😗

Wow! We noticed this just last weeks how weird!

If its only since christmss then I think its something in their seasonal calendar. They dont migrate do they? The unseasonably warm weather is likely disrupting animals cycles too. I hope they dont start breeding at the wrong time of year. Could be disastrous

Same here. There isn't more light pollution all of a sudden here and unlikely we've all suddenly got more light pollution at the same time for the first time ever, so maybe its the unusually high temperatures for the time of year that's different. Recently it wasn't even going into single figures as the minimum overnight temperature here

Same here - Midlands. The last few weeks Ive had blackbirds and robins singing outside the neighbours houses which have bright Christmas lights on all night. Poor things must be exhausted by morning. I wish people would put timers on their lights if they feel they have to deck the house, gates, bushes and trees like Blackpool illuminations.

We get a lot of noise late at night this time of year and November from fireworks. Even distant pops, cracks and whistles from miles away can be unsetttling and wake them up at daft o'clock.

If it's general light tweety-bird-tweeting I tend not to bother and assume they have been disturbed. In the last half hour I've heard noise from geese flying overhead but if they're disturbed by cats they're off and make a hell of a noise the whole time too.

Our neighbours keeps hens, ducks and geese just by the side of ours - maybe 20ft from the living room window and I could hear the ducks going insane about 2am last week. It was a real urgent loud noise as well so I knew something was off.

Shot out with the dogs, shone mega bright floodlight torch over the gate and get it a rattle - eyeshine from a what I'm sure was a fox just about inside their little shed. The sound of panicked geese and ducks really goes through you it's not a pleasant or normal noise at all you know something's wrong.

Omg I heard it the other night too and thought I was tripping....
Reminds me of a book I read once about the earth moving on it's axis and the days/nights change and it affects everything.

When we had an Earthquake in UK early or mid 2000's, the weirdest thing I distinctly recall was firstly jumping up and feeling the bedroom floor swaying gently side to side and then the sound of birds – every type of bird all at once making a racket like it was broad daylight.

Freaked me out all over I couldn't register, grasp or gather my thoughts enough to think of switching on the TV and seeing if anything came up on news. Both of us – me and husband standing there with the bedroom floor gently swaying looking at each other intermittently giving a quiet “The fuck? The fuck is that?”

For weeks I've been hearing birds in the night finally think I know what type of bird they are parakeets living in the blocks roof.
We also have pigeons in the roof they make an awful amount of noise Day and night you'd know if it was pigeon's.

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Hamlet, Act I, Scene I [Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes]

William Shakespeare- 1564-1616

Marcellus to Horatio and Bernardo, after seeing the Ghost,

It's because it's Christmas:

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long;

-Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1