As a frame of reference, this tripled the syllables generated by the Skylark and monstered the Blackbird by more than ten times. Amongst these syllables, a Nightingale may wield hundreds of individual phrases.
The powerful but mellow song really requires extended exposure to appreciate - it's not one that can be enjoyed in just a few small snippets. Though the song may be interpreted as an outpouring of notes, there's just something about the Nightingale's emphatic timing - it's truly superb. It's such a dramatic performer. The song is always unique, phrases strung together to form a seemingly endless variety of compositions.
Perhaps the most magnificent thing about the song may indeed be the composition itself. It may seem strange but the electric pauses sometimes seem as characteristic as the vocalisations. The Nightingale has a remarkable ability to create tension, often drawing you into its phrases with a procession of high-pitched 'whining' or 'piping' notes. It may rapidly escalate the intensity to a 'flutey' crescendo, before switching to something entirely different like a guttural " chug chug chug " interspersed with insect-like buzzing.
The sheer diversity makes it particularly hard to transliterate, though perhaps the most recognisable sounds are the repetitive human-esque whistled notes, " lu lu lu lu. It seems marvellously inventive, an intoxicating combination of fizzing energy, compelling restraint, theatrical drama and striking precision. Phrases within the song will typically last for just a few seconds, often with equal-length pauses in between.
Once learnt, the Nightingale's utterly unique style really can't be confused with any other British bird. The Nightingale, in its song, undoubtedly produces one of the natural world's most remarkable sounds.
Of course the Nightingale's nocturnal singing habits make its song even more striking, purifying it further with the absence of extraneous noise. Humankind has evolutionary reasons for fearing the hostile darkness of night, yet there's something remarkably soothing and reassuring about hearing a Nightingale exquisitely punctuating the silence.
Like some urban songbirds, territorial Nightingale's respond to increased environmental noise by singing at higher amplitudes - exhibiting a noise-dependant vocal regulation mechanism known as the Lombard effect. Of course, Nightingales no longer compete in British urban environments for they're just not found within them. The Nightingale is, however, found across Western and Southern Europe and is rather surprisingly increasing rapidly in cities such as Berlin, where there's an abundance of uncultivated and unkempt green space.
Amongst its staggering volume of cultural connections, the Nightingale even enjoyed celebrated duetting during one of the most famous BBC recordings ever made. It also happened to be the very first time that wildlife had ever been broadcast on radio. The famous cellist Beatrice Harrison performed a live duet with a Nightingale from her Surrey garden in , proving so staggeringly popular that it was repeated every spring until Founder and Director-General of the BBC, Lord Reith, claimed the Nightingale had swept the country with a "wave of emotionalism" and Harrison herself said the experiment had "touched a chord in the public's love of music and nature.
The majesty of Nightingale song was punctuated with the roar of bombers predominantly Lancaster's and Wellington's on their way to Mannheim, though eleven fewer made the return journey to Britain. Whilst the song generated by the Nightingale is remarkable, fascinating and almost beyond compare, its beauty is entirely subjective. In fact it's been a point of contention for an awfully long time. Is it the world's best avian songster? Clearly this is a question for which everybody will have their own answer.
Song aside, the Nightingale doesn't often exhibit particularly conspicuous calls, though the most likely to be heard is a high-pitched alarm, a whistled note delivered with clarity, purity and at a consistent pace. It's a really mellow note, more forceful than a Chiffchaff's soft " hweet" and less upwards-inflected than a Chaffinch's ringing "huiit". The note can be heard more strongly from 20 seconds on in the video below , and it sounds something like " huiip.
Another alarm call that may be heard is a somewhat bizarre, 'amphibian-like' creaking note. It can actually be heard in the background on the clip above. It's more reminiscent of a croaking frog than a bird and its dry, grating, guttural quality conjures an image of a 'wind-up' toy. It may be transliterated as a rolling " krrrrr. I agree. The beak is grey with a pale pink base and the legs are also pink. Males and females are similar whereas juveniles have mottled spotted upperparts and are a darker brown not unlike an immature robin.
The nightingale probably has the largest range of songs of any bird consisting of a rich variety of loud and soft spectacular whistles, trills and chattering of both high and low notes of differing lengths and speeds, often repeated and frequently culminating in an extremely loud throaty whistle which suddenly ends. Whilst both paired male and female adults will call softly during the breeding season by day around the nesting area, the male bird sings extensively during the night in order to attract a mate using a larger repertoire of songs than those vocalised during the day.
In Anglo Saxon times this prolific singing during the night is from where the name of the bird originates, meaning night and song. Jarek Matusiak, XC Accessible at www.
A diet of mainly insects especially ants and beetles and larvae, with the addition of berries and worms foraged from the ground, in ditches or under dense undergrowth, is the mainstay of the nightingale.
Nightingales have an astonishingly rich repertoire, able to produce over different sounds, compared with just by skylarks and about by blackbirds. This is because the part of the brain responsible for creating sound is bigger in nightingales than in most other birds. In Britain, nightingales favour scrub, often near water, and open or coppiced woodland. Here are the ten places you are most likely to hear the birds. Many are nature reserves and offer guided nightingale walks between late April and early June.
Nocturnal singing by robins appears to be on the increase, perhaps triggered by street and security lighting. Blackbirds and song thrushes also sometimes sing at night. This common warbler sings by day, often in the same scrubby or open wooded habitats as the nightingale, and it also has a rich, bright, loud voice with real vigour. Home Animal Facts Birds 10 amazing facts about nightingales and the best places to see them.
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