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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Common Nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

• uncommon
• 35 km/h
• Least Concern

The most celebrated voice in birdsong. Plain brown, rufous tail, sings at full volume through the night.

Population

37.1-55.8 million mature individuals globally (stable trend)

Habitat

Lowland open woodland, scrub and thickets with dense low vegetation, often near water; also hedgerows, cultivated land, and gardens with scrubby cover

Fun fact

Only the male nightingale sings, and unpaired males sing an extraordinarily complex song - built from roughly 1,160 distinct syllable types combined into up to 250 song types - most persistently at night to attract a mate.

Range

Breeds across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia; a full migrant, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa (the Afrotropics)

Diet

Insectivorous - beetles, ants, other insects, spiders and worms gleaned from the ground and low vegetation; supplements with berries and soft fruit in autumn before migration

Size

0.16 m

Wingspan

0.24 m

Lifespan

8 years