Viele Singvögel erheben sich beim Singen aus ihrem sonstigen Lebensbereich und singen ganz oben im Bewuchs oder fliegend im Luftraum. Offenbar ist der Singtrieb bei diesen Arten verbunden mit dem Bedürfnis, ein anderes, dem Singen entsprechendes Umgebungsbild zu haben. Man kann die Singverhaltensweisen in einer Reihe anordnen, ausgehend vom Singen im Gebüsch (Mönchs- und Gartengrasmücke, Nachtigall) über Singen nach vollzogenem Aufstieg, aber noch im Bewuchs (Rotkehlchen, Zaunkönig) bis zum Singen an der oberen Vegetationsgrenze (Amsel, Heckenbraunelle) und über diese hinaus zum Singen im Flug (Feldlerche, Baumpieper). In diesem Beitrag wird, unter Ausklammern funktioneller Aspekte, versucht, die qualitative «Stimmigkeit» zwischen Gesangumgebung und Singtrieb zu erhellen. Einer Erläuterung Steiners (1923) folgend, wird das Singen als Bezugnahme des Einzeltiers zu seiner Art, das heißt zu der geistigen Quelle sämtlicher Erscheinungen am Tier, aufgefasst. In diesem Bestreben nach immer erneuerter «Kommunion» mit der eigenen Spezies lebt der singende Vogel Religion dar. Die Art als Ursprungswesen wird ihm vergegenwärtigt durch die Helligkeit und Weite des Himmelsraumes, in dessen Richtung er sich beim Singen erhebt. Im Lauf des Frühlings durchdringen sich die Qualitäten des Kosmischen und Irdischen, wie sich an Erscheinungen im mittleren Bereich zwischen Himmel und Erde, der Pflanzenwelt, ablesen lässt. Die im Gebüsch singenden Arten treffen als Zugvögel im fortgeschrittenen Frühling bei uns ein und finden dort offenbar bereits so viel Kosmisches um sich, dass ein Singen, als Anbindung an den Urquell des Vogelwesens, innerhalb der Vegetation möglich ist. In diesen Innenräumen brütet auch das weibliche Tier in einer von ihm selbst hervorgebrachten Wärmeinsel. Die Art ist ihm nicht ein Geistiges, zu dem es hinstrebt, sondern ein in irdischen Vorgängen eintauchendes Wesen, in dessen gestaltender Tätigkeit der brütende Vogel sich einfügt.
N1 -Many birds sing while they are on the wing or perched high in vegetation. They obviously require different sense impressions when the tendency to sing becomes predominant and this leads them to rise from the region nearer to the ground where they breed and feed. The various kinds of song behaviour can be arranged in a series, starting with singing in shrubs (blackcap, garden warbler, nightingale), via singing within vegetation but after moving upwards (robin, wren), to singing at the upper limit of the vegetation (blackbird, dunnock) and beyond, in song flight (skylark, tree pipit). Rather than dealing with functional aspects, this article seeks qualitatively to elucidate how song perches and singing fit together, and how they connect with brooding and the other body-related modes of behaviour that take birds inside vegetation. Following an indication given by Rudolf Steiner, singing is considered as a way in which an individual animal relates to its species. Here, species is taken spiritually as the source of all the animal’s characteristics. This source is represented in the image of a landscape by the brightness and physical indefiniteness of the sky as opposed to the dark heaviness of earth, where qualities appear but do not originate. In its desire and search for ever renewed connection with its source, a songbird is a religious being, or rather it lives religion. Those birds that sing inside shrubs and trees belong to migrating species that arrive with the progress of spring when cosmic and terrestrial qualities come together, as can be seen in the phenomena of the vegetation, the intermediate region between heaven and earth. By that time, songbirds obviously find in the inner spaces of vegetation enough cosmic qualities to facilitate singing. In these inner spaces, the female birds are brooding in the islands of warmth that they have created for themselves. The species is not for them a spiritual entity on high that they aspire to, but one that below has immersed itself in formative processes of which a brooding bird makes itself a part.
Many birds sing while they are on the wing or perched high in vegetation. They obviously require different sense impressions when the tendency to sing becomes predominant and this leads them to rise from the region nearer to the ground where they breed and feed. The various kinds of song behaviour can be arranged in a series, starting with singing in shrubs (blackcap, garden warbler, nightingale), via singing within vegetation but after moving upwards (robin, wren), to singing at the upper limit of the vegetation (blackbird, dunnock) and beyond, in song flight (skylark, tree pipit). Rather than dealing with functional aspects, this article seeks qualitatively to elucidate how song perches and singing fit together, and how they connect with brooding and the other body-related modes of behaviour that take birds inside vegetation. Following an indication given by Rudolf Steiner, singing is considered as a way in which an individual animal relates to its species. Here, species is taken spiritually as the source of all the animal’s characteristics. This source is represented in the image of a landscape by the brightness and physical indefiniteness of the sky as opposed to the dark heaviness of earth, where qualities appear but do not originate. In its desire and search for ever renewed connection with its source, a songbird is a religious being, or rather it lives religion. Those birds that sing inside shrubs and trees belong to migrating species that arrive with the progress of spring when cosmic and terrestrial qualities come together, as can be seen in the phenomena of the vegetation, the intermediate region between heaven and earth. By that time, songbirds obviously find in the inner spaces of vegetation enough cosmic qualities to facilitate singing. In these inner spaces, the female birds are brooding in the islands of warmth that they have created for themselves. The species is not for them a spiritual entity on high that they aspire to, but one that below has immersed itself in formative processes of which a brooding bird makes itself a part.