Common nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

A plain-looking Old World songbird famous for a powerful, complex song that may carry through the night.

Key facts

Common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is an omnivore animal classified as Bird · Passeriformes · Muscicapidae.
Primary habitats are forest · grassland · urban, with a range across Palearctic · Afrotropical.
Activity is diurnal, sociality is solitary, and conservation status is LC (Least Concern).
A plain-looking Old World songbird famous for a powerful, complex song that may carry through the night.
Lives in shrubby woodland edges, thickets, riverside cover, orchards, and young woods with dense undergrowth.

Habitat range map

Native rangeOccasional / Transient

Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)

Lives in shrubby woodland edges, thickets, riverside cover, orchards, and young woods with dense undergrowth.

Warm brown upperparts and a rufous tail contrast with plain pale underparts and few bold markings.

Males sing by day and night in spring, often hidden in cover. It migrates to Africa for the non-breeding season.

Insects, larvae, spiders, earthworms, and autumn fruits or seeds are taken close to the ground.

Nests of dry leaves are placed low in shrubs or near the ground, and chicks are fed many insects.

Culturally famous for its song, it is more often detected by voice than by sight.