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Following up on my earlier question, I want to check if I've got a feel for
this subordinate clause particle use correct. This is probably a duplicate,
but it really helps me understand things better if I'm posing the question
myself. If this infringes any rules, though, I'll happily remove it.

In the sentence

> 私 ( **が**? **は**?) 朝起きるとき、鳥 ( **が**? **は**?) いつも歌います。

which instance uses が, and which は? I get the feeling the first instance is が,
and the second, は, but I could be wrong.

Any help is much appreciated.
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nuances は-and-が subordinate-clauses
は or が in the example "朝起きるとき、鳥 ( ) いつも歌います"?
(First, 起きるとき means when someone is about to get up from bed, not just when
someone gets up.)

All the combinations are possible and each of them changes the meaning or the
structure of the sentence.

What's important is that topic phrases and conditional clauses are independent
from each other and both of them functions as topic parts in a sentence.

  1. 私は 朝起きるとき 鳥は いつも歌う

The structure of this sentence goes this way.

topic comment

私は … （いつも歌う）

朝起きるとき … （いつも歌う）

鳥は … （いつも歌う）

Since it has too many topics, it's ambiguous who is the agent to sing or the
one who gets up. For example, if 私 is the one who sings, it naturally leads to
鳥を歌う (an obscure expression, though) with 鳥 topicalised and the one who wakes
up is probably the same 私. As for the reason why 鳥 is topicalized here, it may
be shared information between the listener (in this case, 鳥は is often omitted)
or convey contrastive nuance depending on stress in pronunciation or
interpretation from context, or because of the both factors.

If 鳥 is the one who sings, it's probably conversation among pet owners. In
this case, it's unsure who is the one to get up.

  2. 私が 朝起きるとき 鳥がいつも歌う

This time, it's like this.

topic comment

私が朝起きるとき … 鳥がいつも歌う

This can only translate to "everytime I'm getting up, birds sing". When the
fact that birds always sing is new information or feels unexpected, it's
expressed without being topicalized. If you use 鳥は instead, the issue behind
it is parallel to the above.

Edit; In reality, it should be a little more complicated because we have to
consider difference between とき and ときは, and the topic-comment model shouldn't
be flat.
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In your example, "私は" sounds unnatural because it gives too much emphasis on
"私", while actually it's so much unimportant that most of native Japanese
speakers would omit it at all.

You have also to note that the verb "歌う" is only used when talking about human
beings. When talking about birds, you have to use "鳴く" instead.

And as you're talking about a natural phenomena which is still occurring in
present, it's definitely better to use continuous form.

So the correct sentence is:

> 朝起きるときはいつも鳥が鳴いています。
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It's clearly the speaker who is the one getting up, and that is when the birds
are always singing. 朝（私が）起きる時、鳥（が/は）いつも鳴いている。

For the second part, both が and は are possible. が would be normal just be
stating the fact that the birds are always singing. は would be shifting the
focus of the sentence to the birds. It would be more of you dwelling and
commenting on the birds, rather than your experience waking up. A good way to
think of Xは... is "About X..." or "As for X..."

が is normal, but there is a context where it can have the effect of
emphasizing. That is when you are specifying which thing/person out of a bunch
of possibilities. It depends on the sentence and how you say it, whether or to
what degree the が sounds emphasizing.

彼が言った。 (Who said that?) **He** said that.

あいつらがやった。 (Who did it?) **They** did it.

彼女がここの担任。 She is the teacher in charge of this class.

私が毎日学校に行く。 Everyday I go to school.

Back to 私（は・が）, if you were to say 私は, then that would be like drawing the
focus towards you ie. "As for me...". That would sound unnatural, because
there's no reason to center the subject of the sentence so much around
yourself when you're just saying that there always are birds singing when you
wake up. At least that's how the sentence sounds by itself. A specific example
of a situation where it might make sense to use 私は is if you were discussing
with other people, and the topic was "What it is like at your place in the
morning." Then, it would be natural to use 私は, to the effect of "As for
me...".
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It actually depends on the context, but the "usual" way to say this is:

> 私 **が** 朝起きるとき、鳥 **が** いつも **歌っています** 。  
>  When I wake up, (I find) birds are always singing.

  * が should be used after 私 because 私 is in a subordinate clause (私が朝起きる時 is the subordinate clause.) This is the basic rule. As an exception, in rare contexts where you're comparing 私's mornings with someone else's mornings, は can be used.
  * が should be used after 鳥 because the word 鳥 [has probably not been introduced into "the universe of discourse"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/22/5010). If you have already mentioned these 鳥 before this sentence in some way or another, は should be used. In other words, 鳥は is " _the_ bird(s)", 鳥が is "bird(s)" without "the".
  * I replaced 歌います ("birds (will) sing") with 歌っています (progressive form, "birds are singing"). Saying 歌います sounds like these birds are waiting for 私 to wake up and start singing only after the wake-up.
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