| Re: What is it with Blackbirds ?
Lots of animals do most of their vocalising around dawn and dusk. The reason for this (amongst others like reduced predation risk) is that sound propergates further at these times than during the day. Its to do with temperature inversions that cause the sound waves to be refracted upwards which means that they travel further.
The benefit of this to the animals is that they can communicate over greater distances. This can be a warning, an advertisment of sexual readyness, contact calls with other pack members (in the case of wolves etc.) territorial defence.
For example if a male blackbird defends his territory with his song that proclaims that this is his patch, intruders beware, females come here, he benefits from having his call heard further away. Rivals can hear him at a greater distance so they establish larger territories and his call has a better chance of reaching receptive females.
For the same reason birds often call from perches because the higher they are, the further their song will travel.  |