Nightingale Beautiful bird, recluse and traveller
The nightingale is a bird that has inspired poets and writers. It is not merely because of its call. It is also because of its characteristic forest hermit-like nature, preferring to hide in dense foliage and often announcing its presence only by song.
Found mainly throughout Europe and parts of Asia, it may appear nondescript with its brown plumage. However, its call is known as one of the most beautiful calls in the bird world.
Here is a nightingale singing
They seem to stay in the forest all the time, but in fact they are migratory birds. They migrate thousands of kilometres between their breeding grounds in Europe and their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa, over the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert.
Despite often working alone, they have been shown to temporarily form flocks during migration and exhibit a degree of social behaviour. They also rely on the stars to reach their wintering grounds. They sing in the forests and rely on the stars to migrate across oceans and deserts. They are all somewhat beautiful birds.
Trivia about the nightingale’s song
Male nightingales use their intricate melodies to attract mates and repel rival males. In other words, they sing for courtship and territoriality.
Each male sings a unique song repeatedly, but they can learn new songs throughout their lives.
In one classic example of sexual selection, nightingale females prefer males that sing fast-paced, complex songs.
A healthy nightingale can sing for more than two hours. Despite their small size, they are as good as a single human karaoke singer.
Nightingale singing is affected by ambient noise. Birds in noisier areas have to sing louder to make themselves heard. This sounds natural, just like humans calling someone louder than usual in a crowded place, but it is what is known in bioacoustics as the ‘Lombard effect’.
In the 1920s, the BBC in the UK broadcast a radio programme called Nightingale and the Cello, in which a cellist played along with nightingale songs, a fashionable idea that was broadcast some 100 years ago.
Amazingly, nightingales are known to have a repertoire of over 200 different songs, showing their versatility and vocal range.
While most birds sing during the day, the nightingale is known as the ‘night songstress’ because it is most active during twilight hours.
Their calls have a special character and are often patterned with long sequences of notes. This level of composition and structure of the nightingale’s call has led some scientists to compare it with human language.
As part of the mating ritual, male nightingales practise what is known as a ‘singing duel’. This singing duel can last for several hours.
Studies have shown that nightingales have the ability to sing even when flying, a trait not found in many bird species.
They are present in traditional Chinese culture as well as in Europe. They have been kept in cages for centuries because of their melodious singing voice. Nightingales were even trained to sing traditional Chinese songs because of their intelligence.
Other trivia about nightingales Beauty packs with dung…!
When it comes to lifespan, nightingales can live up to seven years in the wild, a relatively long life span for a small bird species. They seem to be helped by their skillful flying techniques and ability to camouflage themselves in the environment.
Research has shown that nightingales are becoming smaller in size due to climate change, according to the study. This is because as winters get warmer, nightingales need a smaller body size to survive.
In some parts of Hollywood, a beauty regimen using a mixture of nightingale faeces and rice bran is apparently in vogue. In particular, it is said in the media that David Beckham’s wife Victoria Beckham and Tom Cruise are doing it, so I wonder if it is effective. It is a mystery, although it seems that the desire to do great things even when you are old makes you younger. Above all, why did the people who did it in the first place come up with such an idea?
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