Songs with birds chirping

May 8, 2012 1:28 PM

Help me find indie music with the sound of birds chirping in the background.

I really love the songs Summer Teeth by Wilco and Into the Woods by My Morning Jacket. And hey, they both use the sounds of birds chirping in the background! I'd like to make a mix of songs that use bird calls in the background at some point in the song (doesn't matter if it's in the beginning).

posted by quiet coyote to media & arts (33 answers total)

It's not indie but it is the original, The Beatles' Blackbird certainly has chirpy birds, and it's a pretty song.
posted by jujulalia at 1:31 PM on May 8, 2012

XTC, Summer's Cauldron. There may be a chirp or two on other tracks from Skylarking, but I'll have to give it a listen to be sure.
posted by gimli at 1:37 PM on May 8, 2012

No speakers right now, but I'm pretty sure the Rogue Wave's Be Kind + Remind has bird chirps in the background.
posted by Think_Long at 1:39 PM on May 8, 2012

Fake but awesome birds at the beginning of Durutti Columns' Sketch for Summer
posted by neustile at 1:40 PM on May 8, 2012

Elevator's album A Taste of Complete Perspective has birds on a few tracks: Balance, The Animals, Flying
posted by Sys Rq at 1:54 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not sure if indie enough for ya, but Feist's The Park has birds at the beginning.
posted by miss_kitty_fantastico at 1:57 PM on May 8, 2012

Dinosaur Feathers - I Ni Sogoma
posted by adiabat at 1:59 PM on May 8, 2012

Humbly : try this or this, there are lots of birds in these tracks.
posted by nicolin at 2:01 PM on May 8, 2012

Love Song by Elton John -- so old it's new again.
posted by acm at 2:28 PM on May 8, 2012

Andrew Bird - Spare-ohs and Yawny at the Apocalypse
posted by photovox at 2:34 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

In My Backyard by Adrian Belew was the first thing that jumped to mind, but it doesn't seem to be available digitally online in any form. It's on Op Zop Too Wah. Now that I listen to it, two other tracks on that album have birds: Sky Blue Red Bird Green House and Beautiful (gulls at the beginning).

It's perhaps a little more soundscape than song, but Faht by Phish.
posted by usonian at 2:38 PM on May 8, 2012

I think those are birds in the background of The Flaming Lips - It's Summertime (or if not actual birds, then stylised birdsong instrumental sounds)
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:50 PM on May 8, 2012

Not indie, but: Jeff Beck's Blackbird.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:58 PM on May 8, 2012

Several songs on the album The Ghost That Carried Us Away by Seabear, an Icelandic artist. I bought this album while on a vacation in Iceland, where birdsong is very prominent everywhere you go, and listening to this album brings the trip back to me.
posted by matildaben at 3:09 PM on May 8, 2012

The Birds in Your Garden by Pulp.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 3:16 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Laura Marling, Your Only Doll (Dora)
posted by fireflies at 3:18 PM on May 8, 2012

If You're Feeling Sinister-Belle and Sebastian.(title track)
posted by iabide79 at 3:23 PM on May 8, 2012

Just chirping in with this factoid. Not indie by any means, elevator euro trash retro hipster, maybe: Sweet People - Et Les Oiseaux Chantaient. Big top 10 hit at the end of the seventies in the Netherlands.
posted by ouke at 3:25 PM on May 8, 2012

Okkervil River Song by Okkervil River ends with about a minute and a half of red-winged blackbird calls. It's not really integrated into the song itself however, so I'm not sure if it meats your criteria.
posted by primalux at 3:47 PM on May 8, 2012

Pink Floyd's Cirrus Minor, of course. Well hey, it was "indie" once.
posted by Decani at 3:58 PM on May 8, 2012

Also, Jens Lekman's Do Impossible Things uses bird life as a metaphor for a relationship as well as ending with various bird calls.

(PJ Harvey also has a track on "Uh Huh Her" called "Seagulls" that is literally just a recording of gull vocalizations, but I don't think that's quite what you want...unless you use it as a lead in to the subsequent track, which does work really well, especially since it uses river imagery.)
posted by primalux at 4:05 PM on May 8, 2012

The Beta Band - Needles in My Eyes
posted by swimbikerun at 8:50 PM on May 8, 2012

Boards of Canada - Happy Cycling
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 9:01 PM on May 8, 2012

Birds by the Submarines.
posted by gamera at 10:30 PM on May 8, 2012

Not indie, but Nightingale by Roxy Music
posted by LionIndex at 11:18 PM on May 8, 2012

The Divine Comedy - Festive Road
posted by dropkick queen at 2:09 AM on May 9, 2012

The North Sea — Guiwenneth Of The Green Grass
posted by distorte at 3:34 AM on May 9, 2012

i thought Elliott Smith's Twilight had chirps at the beginning, till i looked it up & realized it's the song before that on the album, the birdy-bird-tweety named "Ostriches & Chirping" is :33 of birdcall delight. you could just insert this song in your life wherever you need a bird.
posted by apostrophe at 7:43 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

Try something from Quasi's album Featuring "Birds"
posted by interiority at 9:22 AM on May 9, 2012

Oooh! Not sure if this is "indie" or what, but this is the song I wake up to every morning. :)

Pulp - Birds in your garden
posted by pyjammy at 11:05 AM on May 9, 2012

A little late, but also: Babylon, the first track off the new Brian Jonestown Massacre album, also fits the bill.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:57 AM on May 10, 2012

Er, Panic in Babylon.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:58 AM on May 10, 2012

These aren't indie, but here they are anyway:

The Beach Boys - At My Window, although the sparrow is just someone whistling.
Stevie Wonder - Overjoyed, The First Garden
Minnie Riperton - Loving You
The Young Rascals - Groovin'

And there's always Martin Denny, again with bird calls by the band.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:39 PM on May 10, 2012