Nightingale
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Subfamily:	Saxicolinae
Genus:	Luscinia
Binomial name
Luscinia megarhynchos

Luscinia megarhynchos

The nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is a small bird. It used to be put in the thrush family Turdidae. Now it is put on the Old World flycatchers, a group often called the chats or chat-thrushes. Its resemblance to thrushes is an example of convergent evolution.

It is a migratory insectivorous species. It breeds in forests and scrubs in Europe and south-west Asia. The distribution is more southerly than the very closely related thrush nightingale Luscinia luscinia. It nests on the ground in or next to dense bushes. It passes the winter southern Africa. Studies have shown that nightingales seem to choose places to breed that meet certain criteria (Wink 1973):

• less than 200 meters above mean sea level
• mean air temperature during the growing season above 14 °C
• more than 20 days/year on which temperatures are above 25 °C
• less than 750mm of rain per year.
• no closed canopy.