For about six weeks each spring – in April and May – a very special songster’s voice graces the English countryside. So my first bird of the week has to be the nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos).
Whether you’re a birder or not at all interested in birds, whether you are familiar with bird names such as dotterel, corncrake and lesser redpoll or whether your knowledge of bird species starts and ends with blackbird and robin – everyone has heard of the nightingale.
This bird is a legend, a myth that has been mentioned in poems, songs and stories for hundreds of years. So – what do YOU know about the nightingale? It’s a bird…and it sings by night? Correct (although it does also sing during the day).
Have you ever actually heard a nightingale though? Do you know what it looks like?
Sadly, most people’s answer to these questions will be ‘no’.
This is sad because one of the reasons is the nightingale’s decline – fewer than 7,000 males can be found in the whole country, most of them in the Southeast of England.
It is also very sad because listening to a male nightingale’s song – and it is the males that sing in order to attract females and to defend their territory – is pure magic and an experience you will never forget. No other bird can hit and creatively combine sequences of low and high notes quite like a nightingale can. I can’t really describe it – but it touches the heart.
Check out this page on the RSPB’s website for an example of a nightingale’s song:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/n/nightingale/index.aspx
Seeing one is another matter – nightingales are very elusive birds and the males love to sing hidden in a bush or thicket.
Some might think that a nightingale – the great songster – must also have a striking appearance. Wrong – males impress females with their fantastic voices and thus don’t need a colourful plumage. Plus – if you give away your location by singing day and night with a wonderful and loud voice you certainly don’t want predators to be able to spot you easily. So nightingales are basically brown with a white-ish chest and roufus-coloured tail. However, I don’t agree with people who call a nightingale ‘plain’. I think it is a very beautiful bird indeed.
I would like to share some of my favourite nightingale photos with you, all taken within the last few days – I feel very privileged to have heard and seen nightingales on numerous occasions, some perching right in front of me – this certainly doesn’t happen very often.
This is the best time of year to watch and listen to all of the resident and migrant birds that have just returned from Africa (including the nightingale). They are now singing their little hearts out, show off their best plumage and are more easily seen than at any other time of the year. I shall introduce you to more of those wonderful birds in the next few weeks!
O NIGHTINGALE that on yon blooming spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hopes the Lover’s heart dost fill,
While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May.
(from: “Sonnet to the Nightingale” by John Milton)
Sandra Palme
www.finepetportraits.co.uk