About Nightingales

Although the nightingale isn't known for its physical beauty, there's not another bird more noted for its melodic singing. Like all songbirds, nightingales learn songs from adult birds during their first year. It's mostly the male bird that's known for its singing, usually at night, to woo the female during mating season. A male bird may sing as many as a thousand songs in one night. However, they also sing during the day.

  1. Identification

    • A nightingale is a small migratory songbird. There are two different species of birds that are known by the name of nightingale: the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) and the thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia). Other birds that have been considered nightingales because of their singing include the grosbeak (Virginia nightingale), the bulbul (Persian nightingale), and the Pekin (Japanese nightingale.).

    Physical Traits

    • The common nightingale has reddish-brown plumage. According to the late Chris Mead, who was one of Britain's foremost ornithologists, the average nightingale is about 17 centimeters tall and weighs around 18 to 23 grams. Adults are somewhat larger than the robin, at 15 to 18 centimeters, weighing from 14 to 28 grams. They have large black eyes and white-ringed feathers. Except for their cream-colored chest and belly, their bodies are brown. The adult thrush nightingale is about the same size as the common nightingale. It's easy to tell males from females, as the adult male thrush is larger. Adults have brown feathers except on the underside, which is covered with white plumage. The chest and belly have a mottling of brown spots, with a stronger olive hue than on the common nightingale. The thrush has brown eyes, without the white-ringed eyes characterizing the common nightingale.

    Geography

    • Common nightingales live in deciduous forests, mostly in European countries, except for the northernmost areas. In winter months they migrate to central and northern Africa. Like common nightingales, thrushes live in Africa and Europe, making their home in thickets. Unlike the common nightingales, thrushes typically live in swampy woods and marshes, although they also nest on dry land.

    Reproduction

    • The common nightingale's nest is made by the female. Usually it's hidden in the brush, close to the ground. After a female lays four to five pale green eggs, it takes about eleven to twelve days for them to hatch. Thrushes build their nests on or near the ground. Instead of pale green eggs, their eggs are grey-blue or olive, along with a few red marks. The eggs hatch about thirteen to fourteen days after they're laid.

    Behavioral Traits

    • Nightingales are solitary and territorial. They establish territory by singing at the crack of dawn. Although they usually sing from hidden perches, they can sometimes be more visible, singing from trees or open bushes. Nightingales living in city environments are known to sing louder than country nightingales in order to be heard over background city noises.

    Diet

    • Chris Mead also noted that the diet of the nightingale is basically insects, most commonly ants and beetles, which the birds find on the ground. Berries are another common food on their diet.

    Significance

    • Besides providing humans with beautiful songs, the nightingale has served, throughout history, as a popular theme in poetry, literature, and music. Just a few examples include English poet John Keats's classic poem "Ode to a Nightingale," and the folk song "The Nightingale Which Flies," which Tchaikovsky used in his "Humoresque." The nightingale's love for roses is often seen in Persian literature. Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Nightingale" is about the song of the nightingale, and it's mentioned in Bob Dylan's "Jokerman" and "Changing of the Guards."