Nightingales are LBJs (little brown jobs) ie they are small, undistinguished looking and brown, just like dozens of other European species. It is also very hard to see them as they make sure to be well hidden. It is always the loud song which alerts you to the presence of a Nightingale. They look and sound like Eurasian Robins, but without the red breast and with extra voice training for maximum projection. Like Robins, to which they are related, they sing both night and day, although you usually won't hear them at all after early summer. The singing is to attract a mate, and once that is achieved, they stop.
They arrive in the Touraine Loire Valley in April and depart again in September after having spent the summer here. They feed on ants and beetles that they forage from the undergrowth in dense broadleaf woodland and scrub. They nest in thick vegetation, very close to the ground.
Their French name is
le Rossignol.
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| A Nightingale singing by the side of a track in the Brenne in May -- for once quite visible! |
Further Reading: An
article in the Guardian reporting on research into birdsong. The Nightingale has the most complex and varied range of notes of any song bird.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteall the bird books say that Night(&Day)ingales sing mainly at night...
I wish ours would read the books!!
Also...
almost all species of bird stop singing once they've started nesting...
and restrict singing to territorial boundary singing morning and evening...
that is why the dawn chorus, and to a lesser extent the evening one, are so fabulous to hear.
Double or treble brooder species will sing during the day again between broods.
Polygamist birds, like Chaffinches and Wrens will often continue to sing regardless throughout summer...
but more likely on dull days...
on hot days they are usually too busy panting!!