Birdsong has long inspired human music, with multiple composers such as Mozart, Messiaen and Beethoven all taking inspiration from the feathered friends. Written in the 13th century, one of the earliest pieces of polyphonic music, Sumer is icumen in, better known as Summer Canon or Cuckoo Song, that features singers mimicking the sound of a cuckoo bird. With the songful species now under threat, it seems it’s not our natural soundscapes that are at risk, but our contemporary compositional ones too. An international study examining the last 25 years shows that the decline of bird species has dramatically altered the volume of nature’s soundtrack. Research suggests that the soundtrack of spring is getting quieter and less varied and that one of the fundamental pathways through which humans engage with nature is in chronic decline, with potentially widespread implications for human health and wellbeing.