Photos by Jane Nicholas & Phillip Brown

"The Twelve Birds of Christmas"

by Jane Nicholas and Ida Domazlicky

We've all likely heard and have sung, or at least attempted to sing, the annual classic "keep the kids busy on the way to Grandma's house" song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." We always started out slowly, but by the end we were figuratively running down hill as fast as we could, getting louder and louder and trying to get through the whole last verse in one long breath. WHEW! Try it sometime, but not AFTER a big dinner. We thought we'd switch things up and give you our new birdie version of this cherished by some, abided by others, holiday tune.

In case you don't sing, the original words were actually written as a chant back in the early 1700s, so you can do this as a recitation. The melody we know today was added much later by the English composer Frederic Austin. We hope you will enjoy singing or chanting this new version with your family and friends. Have a very birdie holiday!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Twelve dippers dipping,

Eleven wigeons splashing,

Ten sandpipers peeping,

Nine herons fishing,

Eight nuthatches hatching,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six eagles soaring,

FIVE SPOTTED TOWHEES,

Four hummingbirds,

Three Bushtits,

Two Mourning Doves,

And a Barred Owl in a fir tree!

HOOT! HOOT!