What bird sings at 3am?
At 3 a.m. in Poland the bird that sings most often is the nightingale, and in June the first birds announcing dawn begin, usually the robin and the blackbird.
Summer Forest Bird Sounds for Sleeping • Black Screen • 12H
It helps to tell two cases apart. The truly nocturnal singers are the common nightingale and the thrush nightingale (loud, rich phrases with whistles, usually from May to June), and in meadows and near water also the corncrake (a monotonous "crek-crek") and reed-bed birds, for example the sedge warbler. The second case is the start of the dawn chorus: in June dawn comes very early, so around three o'clock the first birds start, usually the robin and the blackbird, followed by the song thrush and the rest.
What exactly you hear depends on the place, the season and the weather. At night there are also sounds that are easy to mistake for birdsong: the hooting tawny owl and other owls.
What we have in the recordings: our 12-hour black screen from the forest, recorded from afternoon to dawn, has chapters in the description with species and timestamps counted from the start of the file. They include the black woodpecker, the nightingale, the woodlark, the crane, the garden warbler and the crested lark. Check the timestamps instead of guessing. Two other forest night recordings have birds in the background all night, but without the species described.
Quick questions
Does the nightingale really sing at night?
Yes. Nightingales also sing at night, especially in spring and early summer.
Why do birds start singing while it is still dark?
In June dawn comes very early, and some species start singing long before sunrise.
