MAPLEWOOD HEIGHTS — Representatives of the nation’s songbirds appeared before an unconvinced audience of sleep-deprived homeowners Tuesday to deny that the daily 4:45 a.m. dawn chorus is coordinated, describing it instead as “a coincidence of enthusiasm.”

“Nobody told anybody to start,” said an American robin identified in program materials as lead spokesbird, speaking from atop a lectern in the Maplewood Heights Community Center. “I woke up, I felt incredible, and I said so. If four million other birds also woke up feeling incredible at the exact same moment, that’s just a lot of people having a great morning.”

Audience members, many of whom arrived in bathrobes and several of whom fell asleep during opening remarks, were not persuaded.

“They start at the same time every single day,” said homeowner Deb Kowalczyk, 54, holding a coffee mug in both hands as though it were a flotation device. “Rain, shine, Saturday, doesn’t matter. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a calendar.”

The robin countered that the birds do not own calendars, a claim it repeated four times, at increasing volume, until it was gently asked to stop.

Dr. Lindqvist Aarno-Beckwith, senior fellow in Crepuscular Vocal Synchronicity at the Institute for Reasonable Explanations of Things That Are Obviously Planned, said the birds’ position strains belief.

“In my 31 years studying this, I have never encountered a group so committed to appearing spontaneous while being so precisely on schedule,” Aarno-Beckwith said. “If you told me a hundred accountants all began laughing at 4:45 a.m. and called it chance, I would also have questions.”

The hearing grew tense when a homeowner asked why the birds could not wait until a more civilized hour, such as 7:30. A mockingbird in the back row responded that it had “no idea what that means” and that it “just feels the day in its chest.” It then performed what it described as a brief demonstration, which was ruled out of order at 6:12 p.m.

Pressed on whether a rooftop sparrow had been seen visiting neighboring trees in the hours before dawn, apparently to rally participants, the birds’ legal counsel, a barred owl, declined to comment and then declined to comment again, quietly, from the dark.

“If four million other birds also woke up feeling incredible at the exact same moment, that’s just a lot of people having a great morning.”

The community board offered several compromises, including a proposed “quiet-until-six” ordinance and a request that the birds at least take turns. The robin said it would “take it back to the flock,” a phrase homeowners called deeply incriminating.

By the end of the session, both sides had agreed on only one point: that everyone was very tired. The birds, however, were notably less so, and several were seen leaving the hall in an energetic, tightly spaced formation that spokesbirds later said “just sort of happened.”

The hearing adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Witnesses reported that the first bird began singing at 4:45 the following morning.