Page 298 - Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (DK - RSPB)

CHATS AND THRUSHES
Order Passeriformes Family Turdidae Species Luscinia megarhynchos
Nightingale
spotted
above
rufous
tail
rufous plain brown pale ring around
tail wings large dark eye

ADULT
warm
IN FLIGHT brown back
grey on side JUVENILE
of neck
clean grey-buff
underside
tail often bright
raised rump

ADULT

ith one of
Wthe finest songs strong
in Europe, the Nightingale is pinkish legs MALE
easy to find when singing but otherwise difficult to locate and (SINGING)
usually hard to see well. It skulks in thick vegetation, often close
to the ground, although with a little patience a clear view can
sometimes be obtained. In places, it sings much more openly, but FLIGHT: low, short, flitting, with wings and tail
is likely to drop out of sight immediately if approached too fanned briefly as it dives into cover.
closely.Although quite plain in appearance, its
identification is usually straightforward.
VOICE Calls include low, mechanical, grating kerrr,
loud, bright hweet; song brilliant but unstructured, very
varied, some phrases extremely fast with sudden
change from high to low pitch; long, slow, plaintive
notes build to sudden throaty trill.
NESTING Cup of grass and leaves in dense bushy
cover close to ground; 4 or 5 eggs; 1 brood; May–June. POWERFUL SONG
FEEDING Forages in clear spaces under dense, dark Males sing more consistently at
cover, in ditches, and under thickets for worms, larvae, dawn and dusk, and bursts of OCCURRENCE
beetles, and berries. song are often intermittent by day. In Europe from April to August;
common in S Europe, scarce in
SIMILAR SPECIES NW as far as England and
Germany. Breeds in many kinds of
THRUSH NIGHTINGALE ROBIN juvenile, GARDEN WARBLER thickets that are dense to ground
see p.439 similar to juvenile; see p.314 level, from bushy gullies and
see p.295 duller
overgrown gardens to woodland
mottled
on chest smaller with bushy (especially coppiced)
undergrowth and clumps of dense
smaller bushes on heaths.
Seen in the UK
duller
J F M A M JJ A S O N D
Length 16–17cm (6 1 ⁄2in) Wingspan 23–26cm (9–10in) Weight 18–27g ( 5 ⁄8 – 15 ⁄16oz)
Social Solitary Lifespan Up to 5 years Status Secure†
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