By Mariano Gómez · Updated on 7 October 2026

Birds

Common Nightingale, the singer of the riverbanks that will not let itself be seen

Luscinia megarhynchosHear its song0:28

Photo gallery of the Common Nightingale

Identification of the Common Nightingale

It is a sleek bird, with a fine bill and a long tail. Females and males are alike. The mantle and wings are a uniform ochre brown, except for the tail, a distinctive reddish-brown tone, and the underparts much paler, cream-white. Very skulking, it rarely leaves the thicket. It can be confused with the Common Reed Warbler and with Cetti’s Warbler, with which it sometimes shares the riverside undergrowth: the reed warbler is paler and more yellowish and lacks the reddish tail, and Cetti’s Warbler has a white line above the eye and short, rounded wings and tail.

Adult

• Ochre brown, with a reddish-brown tail.
• Cream-white underparts.

Young bird

• Brown, with feathers spotted at the tip with yellowish dots, before the partial moult prior to migration.

Habitat and distribution of the Common Nightingale

It breeds across much of the southern half of Europe and in Asia, from Turkey to the Caspian Sea. European populations are complete migrants, and spend the winter in western and central Africa.

In spring it colonises the whole Peninsula, the Balearics and Ceuta, although it is very scarce in the northern half of Galicia and on the northern slope of the Cantabrian Range, and thins out in the highest mountains and in heavily deforested areas. It is absent from the Canaries and Melilla. It breeds mostly below 1,000 metres and is abundant in damp places: banks of rivers, streams and lagoons with dense vegetation, and damp montane woods with shrubs. In the northern half it also breeds in farmland with bramble hedges. Autumn passage through Spain runs from August to October.

Etymology of the Common Nightingale

«Luscinia» is the Latin name of the nightingale, and «megarhynchos» comes from the Greek «megas», «big», and «rhynchos», «bill»: «the big-billed one». The Spanish «ruiseñor» comes from the Occitan «rossinhol», and this from the Latin «lusciniolus», «little nightingale».

Population of the Common Nightingale

In Spain there are about 7 million individuals, concentrated almost exclusively in the Mediterranean region, with a moderate annual increase. In Europe between 20.4 and 30.7 million mature individuals are estimated, stable. It is listed as Least Concern. It disappears from riverbanks that are channelled or stripped of vegetation, and it is affected by pesticides, but it gains ground on farmland being abandoned and where riverside and hillside woodland recovers, which gives it shady, cool surroundings.

Nest of the Common Nightingale

It places it on the ground or making use of the slight rise of fallen branches, in areas of very dense vegetation. It is a shallow cup of dry leaves and grasses, lined inside with fine grasses and hair.

Courtship and breeding of the Common Nightingale

Males arrive before females and mark out the territory with song. Courtship and nest building take place between April and June. It lays a single clutch of four to six eggs, sometimes three or seven, green, greyish or reddish. The chicks hatch after 13 or 14 days of incubation and leave the nest before they are two weeks old.

Diet of the Common Nightingale

It is essentially insectivorous: it eats beetles, ants, mosquitoes, spiders and worms, which it catches searching among the leaf litter or in flight. At the end of summer, in the middle of migration, it adds fruits, such as blackberries and elderberries, to build up fat reserves.

Curious facts about the Common Nightingale

Males sing by day and by night. By day, in sonorous «duels» with other males, and by night, now more intent on attracting females. It sings even in winter, in Africa. And although it is famous, almost nobody has seen it properly: the nightingale is heard, not seen.

The Common Nightingale in Cabañeros

The habitat pages of this website highlight its presence in the riverside woods, with high density near the River Bullaque.

Where to see the Common Nightingale in Cabañeros

On the banks, above all those of the River Bullaque, and in gullies with dense bramble patches.

When

From March to October. The song is most intense in spring, from April to June.

What time

At dawn and at dusk, and sometimes all night, when the males sing.

Where

In the dense vegetation of rivers and streams, among brambles and shrubs, always near water.

What to look for

Let us not look for it with our eyes: we follow the song and wait by the bush until a brown bird with a reddish tail peeks out.

Videos of the Common Nightingale

Similar species to the Common Nightingale

Cetti's Warbler

Cettia cetti

How to tell them apart

It also lives in the riverside undergrowth, but has a pale line above the eye, short, rounded wings and tail and a redder brown over the whole back. Its song is a sudden, dry burst.

Photo: Ferran Pestaña from Barcelona, Spain, CC BY-SA 2.0

Common Reed Warbler

Acrocephalus scirpaceus

How to tell them apart

Paler and more yellowish, without the nightingale’s reddish tail, and tied to reedbeds. Its song is a continuous, monotonous chatter.

Photo: Matthias Barby, CC BY-SA 3.0

Other birds

Bibliography

• Jiménez García-Herrera, José. (2017). Aves de Cabañeros y su entorno. Madrid, Spain: Ecohábitat.
• SEO Birdlife - Sociedad Española de Ornitología
• https://es.wikipedia.org/
• Hume, Rob. (2016). Guía de campo de las Aves de España y Europa. Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Omega