nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

• Heard rather than seen
   
• Russet brown above with a rusty red tail and pale undersides
   
• The song is very distinctive - fast, loud and rich, often commencing with a 'choc, choc' - click on the recording below to listen:
   

Where found

Often associated with coppiced woodland but also in open woodland with plenty of undergrowth, wooded heaths and tangled scrub.
 

When to look for

• A summer visitor, so listen out from late April.

Fabulous nightingale facts

• Slightly larger than robins
  
  
• Nightingales sing throughout the day as well as at night
  
  
• They are secretive and take refuge in impenetrable bushes and thickets
  
  
• According to the RSPB, in the UK nightingales breed mainly south of the Severn-Wash line and east from Dorset to Kent, with the highest densities found in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Kent and Sussex
  
  
• They sing until late May - early June, then leave from July to September for Africa where they spend the winter
  
  
• They eat insects, spiders and worms as well as berries and fruit
  
  
• John Keats immortalised them in his famous poem 'Ode to a Nightingale' in the nineteenth century