Big-Eyed Birds Sing First
Researchers have shown that birds with the biggest eyes sing the earliest in the morning.
A series of studies in Europe by the University fo Bristol show that birds stagger when they burst into song in the morning. Those with the biggest eyes start singing first, and then those with smaller eyes, and so on until the birds with the smallest eyes start singing. Often there can be a 100 minute or more gap between when the first birds begin and the final birds join in.
The scientists theorize that a singing bird becomes a target for predators, so they sing when their eyes are best able to help them watch out for danger.
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