In Southern California it’s Bewick’s wrens. I waffle between finding their song incredibly beautiful and extremely obnoxious. When it’s mating season for the mockinbirds the males sing night and day until they get a mate. Which is sometimes a painfully long time.
In Western Pennsylvania it was always the gray catbirds (which I thought sang beautifully) but one day I woke up to this porcupine. They eat the walls or something.
I often wake to the calls of tarsiers and sunbirds. In addition I get the engines of early boats passing…
I may be too groggy to notice. Also, I don’t know that I would be able to identify them even if I were paying closer attention, though that’s what I rely on all of you for:
5:52 am - Northern Cardinal
I also know the mockingbirds like to sing into the wee small hours, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept going until near dawn.
This is in central Texas.
I’m not much for early morning, unless it’s 5 AM and I’m still awake. The first birds I notice in the morning in Central Texas are the Mourning Doves. They’re kind of a family joke. My husband heard them one morning before he was really awake and thought someone was nagging him to “Pick Up the Phone.” So they’re the Pick Up the Phone birds to us. And now, you can’t unhear that either…
We should list our lullaby chorus. I’ve got tree frogs and, rarely, an owl!
Fun question! I grew up in south-western Sydney, where you could often hear things like spotted doves, Indian mynas, galahs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, yellow-tailed black-cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets and kookaburras, among other things. Common/eastern koels are notable visitors in the warmer months.
Cape Robins, Karoo Robins, Cape Sparrows, Greyheaded Sparrows, Laughing Doves, Redeyed Doves, Cape Turtle Doves, Cape Bulbuls, Pied Starlings, European Starlings, Redwinged Starlings, Karoo Prinia, African Stonechat, Cape Weaver, Masked Weaver, Red Bishop, Olive Thrush, African Reed Warbler, Egyptian Geese, Yellowbilled Ducks, Bokmakieries, Fiscal Shrikes, Fiscal Flycatchers, Blackheaded Herons, Grey Herons, Jackal Buzzards, Whitenecked Ravens, Black Crows, Cape Bunting, Yellow Canaries, Cape Canaries, Familiar Chats, Longbilled Crombecs, Cape Francolins, Helmeted Guineafowl, Longbilled Pipits, Levaillant’s Cisticola, Greybacked Cisticola.
Also sheep, chickens and a very loud captive dove from the next door farm (haven’t worked out which species yet). And Clicking Stream Frogs.
If moonlit at dawn, then we also hear Spotted Eagle Owls, Spotted Dikkops and Fierynecked Nightjars.
And sometimes Threebanded Plovers.
And in spring, bladder grasshoppers. And Fairy Flycatchers.
It’s quite loud.
And glorious :-D
The pre-sunrise screeching of Trichoglossus rubiginosus. Although the noise wakes me up, I have to smile because they remind me of where I am - the only place on the planet this particular bird can wake one up.
For me, a HongKonger, it would be the black collared starling and light-vented bulbul. The tree sparrow sometime also joins. In summer, the koel and oriental magpie robin would start at 4am which actually marks my time to sleep.
I’m a late sleeper so the first birds I usually hear in the summer are the rufous hummingbirds fighting over the feeder outside my bedroom window. It’s funny how ferocious they are with each other but they’re scared of the paper wasps that also frequent our garden.
It must be a lorikeet thing! In Sydney our rainbow lorikeets (T. moluccanus) are very common and quite raucous en masse. In places they flock with the much less common and almost as vocal musk lorikeet (Glossopsitta concinna) too.
Despite living in Southern California, we wake up to screaming Amazona (well-established feral population of escaped pets, mix of species.) Boy, they are loud.
American Robins and Evening Grosbeaks, usually.
Northern Cardinals. They’re the first sounds in the morning (wanting their breakfast birdseed), as well as the last sounds in the evening before the “real” night animals kick in.
Gorgeous looking bird!
Grew up in Northern Ontario as well. Thanks for the lovely memory.
Some of my happiest memories are from places where the dawn chorus is howler monkeys. I miss being in places like that 
Lately, owls - sometimes accompanied by roosters. They almost seem to be calling to each other.
Admittedly, it’s more of a middle of the night chorus but, during the summer when they are here, the Eastern Whip-poor-will wakes me up, makes me smile and then sings me back to sleep.
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/27999859
Right now, with the summer birds gone and the winter birds moving in, it’s the Evening Grosbeaks. Not the most melodious of sounds but they let me know it’s time to put the feeders out for the day. Can’t wait until the bears are hibernating so that I can leave the feeders out all night.
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/25443823
I’m in São Paulo, Brazil. On my particular area the dawn chorus is sung by the Rufous-bellied Thrush (Sabiá-Laranjeira in brazilian portuguese) and the Great Kiskadee (Bem-te-vi in brazilian portuguese).
Every once in a while I may have some Plain Parakeet
When I leave my apartment building I usually hear the starlings on the top of the building whistling. But, there is a small woods just across the parking lot. I have heard blue jays, red-bellied woodpeckers and other species from time to time. Recently I heard a white-breasted nuthatch.
Northeast Ohio