Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song “(They Long to Be) Close to You” in the 60s. But the American duo, The Carpenters, among those who recorded the song are the ones who popularized it. It was included in their second studio album, Close to You (1970). The single topped both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. It was so popular that it also reached the top of Canadian and Australian charts and peaked at number six on the charts of both the UK and Ireland. The first lines of this popular song triggered us to talk about birds in this article. So, why do birds suddenly appear?
What the song meant by “birds suddenly appear”?
In the song, the phrase “suddenly appear” meant what happens when we fall in love. Like the term, “butterflies in the stomach”, when a person is in love, strange feelings occur. In this case, it’s comparable to the feeling when suddenly, beautiful birds arrive. However, in reality, birds just do not show up like that. By nature, birds can be seen in the mornings after arriving from their night’s rest. Other times, when the migration of birds happens, that’s when you suddenly see them in volumes.
Can birds suddenly appear just like that?
While in the context of a love song, it may sound so nice that birds do suddenly appear. But in reality, it is not like that after all. But we may miss when the birds start to “pop up”. So, can birds appear just like that? The short answer is no. Birds are not magical beings that may appear and disappear at a moment’s notice. However, like humans, they sleep and rise in the morning. That’s why you see plenty of them in most mornings.
There is that certain time around dawn and sunrise where the birds start to emerge from their nests. You could probably hear them sing if only the noise of the city overpowers them. They could be a living creature that serves as an alarm clock in the morning.
And, when it is getting dark, the process repeats in reverse order. The birds will start to sing while the sun is going down. They would start to look for their nests to rest until morning comes, just like most of us do.
Can migratory birds just appear?
Like most things in life, when you try to find the answer to whether migratory birds just appear, most answers will be “it depends!”. Although birds are not created equal and so, are their environments, some birds are nomads. They would migrate to another place when their needs are not met. Requirements like weather conditions, temperature, food availability, and reproduction can trigger the migratory behavior of these birds.
Some birds can fly over long distances such as making the jump over the Atlantic. There are also the ones that go from the top of America, all the way to the south and vice versa, looking for warm places during winter. They also migrate to mate and reproduce.
These birds do this out of necessity. The seasons our planet has all year round make this process a common occurrence in various zones of the globe. Things like climate change or global warming affect a bird’s behavior well.
Birds are not the only kind of animals that migrate long distances. Fish, aquatic mammals like dolphins and whales, some insects, a large number of mammals like rhinos, caribous, and even some kinds of crabs and reptiles are migratory.
Those animals need to overcome some threats too. They can be prey to predators while moving, or die from exhaustion or hunger, and even dehydration. The current climate situation on our planet can also pose harm to these animals.
Conclusion:
It is interesting to see what birds normally do when the day starts and when nearing its end. Unsurprisingly, our behaviors are no different from these animals, particularly retiring at the end of the day.
The kicker was the migratory birds, which are also similar to other animals and human beings in the way how they move when their needs are not met entirely. If it is too cold, they would fly to another place with a warmer climate where they seek refuge. Similar to us humans, we take off to another country when it’s warmer during winter.
To know about a generally non-migratory bird like the flamingo bird but due to change of climate and water levels in their breeding areas, flamingo colonies are not always permanent and migrate to other places. Check out our website for our future posts about this bird.
