Birds' bedtime

We used to regularly holiday in the same tiny Portuguese fishing village and you could set your clock by the birds. They would return to the enormous fig tree at 6.00pm every day - the noise was deafening! - and then all of a sudden it would be 'lights out' and total silence. It was as though someone had flicked a switch!

Who decided it was time for silence and how did they know?!

Maybe at 10 pm the resident fox passed by on his nightly patrol, so they all took cover and kept schtumm.

The birds certainly weren't quiet here at 3:45 am! Such a pretty sound but oh! How I wished they would go back to sleep until a more civilised hour.

There's a blackbird whose family has nested beside my deck for a few generations and they often sing very, very quietly so that only I can hear them.
As we are told birds sing to advertise themselves or territory, I can only imagine that this whispered song is practice.

They seem to sing more as a group at dawn and dusk- But there are times when they are much louder than others-

It is soothing ..

when theres a full moon they sing all night.
so does the rooster down the road.

That is odd, we sometimes have birds singing at 2am why?