To be clear, I love rounds like "ah poor bird", and I have to tell you a bit of my story of how I discovered this one.
In france, we have a song called "Vent Frais, Vent du matin", which is also a little round, very well known. I had the ambition to discover its origin so I look through a big part of the internet, and a lot of old child song books. And discovered that it was probably popularized after 1940 but before 1960.
In my research, I discovered many other version of "vent frais":
1 in german 1 in italian 3 in english ("rose rose rose rose", one that I forgot the name of but that begins with "ding dong" and most importantly "ah poor birds"
All those version have a common ancestor being "Hey ho nobody home" of Thomas Ravenscroft who was born in the XVII century.
If you want to see the similarities, look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofp7uWFxBwY
So there is no copyright because the air is just very very old
Rating
Origins and composer of Ah Poor Bird by: Terry moran
These might help "The source of this modern English text is unknown. The music seems to be based on the minor key version of Oh, My love found in The Catch club, 1972." www.soundthinkingaustralia.com/summerschool/summer/ah_poor_bird3.pdf
Also Elizabethan round http://kristinbamberger.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Ah-Poor-Bird.pdf
Dana: Cool! I am a bit skeptical of the 1972 date. Seems like there would be a copyright associated with it in that case. I guess research into "The Catch Club" music is in order. Thank you, Terry!