Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

Clickhere for the bird's sound.

Although this bird is larger than the Sparrows are, only very few people will be able to claim they have actually seen it. It lives in bushes and the more leaves and branches there are, the better! In our garden we have only seen it once. Yet we know it's there all the time, because it's beautiful song is around us at warm summernights when we sit out on the terrace. It seems that the more beautiful the weather, the louder and more enchantingly the bird sings. Maybe it's true, maybe it's just imagination: at warm summernights everything seems to be more magnificent than usually..

This bird belongs to the family of Thrushes (Muscicapidae). It is an infrequent visitor to our garden and can be seen in Holland april - november. The bird is 6" and weighs 22 grams. It lives in Woodlands, parks and gardens with bushes mostly. It eats insects and spiders. The sexes do not differ from one another. The bird's breeding time is relatively short. It builds its nest in shrubs and on the ground in may and june. It lays five or six eggs, which hatch after only 13 days. The chicks need the same amount of time to be able to fly away.