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19

Common Nightingale

(Luscinia megarhynchos)
Alternate name(s): "Nightingale", "Rufous Nightingale"
German name(s): "Nachtigall"

Size: 15-16.5 cm; wing span 23-26 cm
Weight: 20-36 g
Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description

Click here for a physical description

Taxonomy, classification

See Common Nightingale at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species

Click here for information on habitat and range

Sightings

Click here for sighting information

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Near-frontal view of a singing Common Nightingale; this is the bird whose song was recorded on 18 April 2020
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, April 2020]

Near-lateral view of a Common Nightingale (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, April 2020]

Near-lateral view of a singing Common Nightingale; this is the bird whose song was recorded on 18 April 2020
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, April 2020]

Lateral view of an adult Common Nightingale (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[5 km South-east of Temerin, Serbia, July 2016]

Lateral view of a Common Nightingale foraging for insects (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, May 2019]

Food, Diet

Near-lateral view of a Common Nightingale with its prey, a small insect (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, May 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Common Nightingale with its prey, a small insect (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, May 2019]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

nitgale_jp_20190412.m4a (Portugal) Territorial calls © JP
nitgale_jp_20190412_2.m4a (Portugal) Territorial calls © JP
nitgale_jp_20190413.m4a (Portugal) Territorial calls © JP
nitgale_jp_20180528.m4a (Portugal) Territorial calls © JP
nitgale_jp_20200531.m4a (Portugal) Alarm calls? © JP
nitgale_jp_20190521.m4a (Portugal) Various © JP

More Common Nightingale sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site?
If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.