Songfacts®:

• There were times during the COVID-19 pandemic when it seemed like the world was ending, especially if you lived in New York City, which was hit hard and where many apocalyptic books and movies take place.
  
  Elizabeth Ziman (Elizabeth And The Catapult) wrote the song in August 2020 after riding out the pandemic in the city for months. The lyric is based on her often surreal encounters, like with an old man smoking on her doorstep, no longer concerned that smoking will kill him because he's sure the virus will first. The chorus portends doom:
  
  Tell your mother that you love her
  And tell your boyfriend you wish him well
  'Cause the birds and the bees they've all come to agree
  That no one's gonna save them now
  
  "It was just this convergence of all these conversations I had had with my family, friends, a neighbor, a stranger in the deli, about how we were coping with this new reality, and it kind of reads as a diary entry," Ziman explained on the Songfacts Podcast. "But it's very descriptive, like this is what's going on, and then like a PSA the chorus is like, Stay home! Wear your mask! So, I got it all in there. That's how it felt for me."
• Ziman recorded this song in her living room with just her voice and piano. At the beginning of the song, you can hear a squeak when she adjusts her seat. She left it in because she wanted to preserve the rawness of the track.
• "Birds And The Bees" is the opening track on the fifth Elizabeth And The Catapult album, Sincerely, E. It was one of the first songs she wrote after a long stretch of writer's block.