Sunday 5th May from midnight to 07:00 on RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ Lyric fm & BBC Radio Wales

Love nature, love the Dawn Chorus!

Listen to the birds sing: in the early hours of Sunday 5th May, International Dawn Chorus Day, Ireland's airwaves will come alive with birdsong

RTÉ Radio One’s live Dawn Chorus is one of the most ambitious and innovative radio projects to have hit the Irish airwaves. For almost three decades now, Derek Mooney and his team of experts have been bringing the uplifting and fascinating strains of early-morning birdsong to listeners. Ireland’s biggest annual radio event, celebrating the loudest sound in nature.

Winner of both the National PPI Radio Award for Innovation and the coveted International Rose d’Or award, the programme has become one of the key broadcast highlights of the year, not just in Ireland but right across Europe and beyond. Featuring live birdsong and expert commentary, it offers an unmatched live celebration of our natural heritage.

International Dawn Chorus Day will take place on Sunday 5th May 2024 (Photo-Getty)

Interest in the natural world has never been higher. People have a greater appreciation of our flora and fauna, and in particular for the songs of our wild birds. The joy and optimism engendered by birdsong has become a crucial source of comfort and entertainment for a great many of us. During the height of the Covid crisis, the restrictions that were in place meant that most of us found ourselves suddenly confined to our homes, and the lack of background noise from traffic meant that the dawn chorus stood out to us like never before. It had always been there; it’s just that we had never really noticed it before and now it seems we love it.

The dawn chorus is one of the most magical experiences in nature: a multitude of birds of many different species all singing together in harmony as morning breaks and light begins to fill the skies. As our natural world’s most impressive and renowned concert, it is almost as though it has been tailor-made for radio. It never ceases. It moves, with the early morning light, like a great wave on the face of the Earth. At this moment, somewhere in the world, the birds are waking up and bursting into song.

International Dawn Chorus Day will take place on Sunday 5th May, and this year the Mooney Goes Wild team will once again be bringing listeners across Ireland and, thanks to RTÉ’s online presence, the world a celebration of Irish birdsong from midnight through to 7:00am on RTÉ Radio One, in a simulcast with RTÉ Lyric fm & BBC Radio Wales.

The first birds are expecting to sing around 4am (Photo-Getty)

While Derek Mooney steers the ship from the RTÉ studios in Dublin, 'home base’ for the live broadcast once again this year will be BirdWatch Ireland’s Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve in Cobh, Co. Cork, where our main presentation team of Jim Wilson and Niall Hatch will introduce the dawn chorus and, while the birdsong builds in real time, explain to listeners what our feathered friends are getting up to as the sun rises.

Across the country, Richard Collins, Éanna Ní Lamhna, Eric Dempsey and Terry Flanagan will also bring us the birdsong from their parts of Ireland, as the sun gradually breaks the horizon and the birds begin their performances.

The first birds are expecting to sing around 4am so what better way to pass the time that in the company of or colleagues on RTÉ Lyric fm.

Liz Nolan's classical contribution to the Dawn Chorus, includes larks and swallows, blackbirds and baby chicks - a symphony of birdsong for your May morning! With music by Vaughan Williams, Rameau, Michael Head and more, composers you'll hear on The Full Score, RTÉ lyric fm.

'The Dawn Chorus is very close to our hearts in RTÉ lyric fm and as we celebrate our 25th birthday this May it's worth mentioning that birdsong is how RTÉ lyric fm first came into being

when the new station was tested in 1999 before first broadcast. Dawn with the awakening chorus of birds is a time of hope and joy - it has been an inspiration for musicians and composers throughout time.

We are delighted to be part of this wonderful initiative again this year and bring your some carefully selected music by RTÉ lyric fm presenters, Lorcan Murray, Liz Nolan and Peter Curtin, to celebrate our natural world.'

Sinéad Wylde, Head RTÉ lyric fm

Join us on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ Lyric fm from 00:00-07:00 on Sunday 5th May 2024

Lorcan Murray will present his 30-minute selection of bird related music and Peter Curtin bring us a 30-minute sequence based on the Ambient Orbit series which often features birdsong and ambient sounds from the natural world.

But, most importantly of all, we want to hear from you! We are counting on our listeners to send us their own recordings and live feeds of the birdsong performance happening near them. It could be the sound from your garden, your local park or woodland . . . or even just your open bedroom window.

So, join us on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ lyric fm, from 00:00-07:00 on Sunday 5th May 2024 for a very special celebration of our wild birds, an exploration of our shared natural heritage and the finest free concert you will hear all year.

Love nature, love the Dawn Chorus!