Nightingale (Common Nightingale)
Luscinia megarhynchos
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Distribution Britain 457 (-28.5%) Ireland 0
Numbers breeding: Britain 5,500 Ireland 0 European status: 3,700,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: declining (-42% CES adults) How likely are you to record it? 65 squares (1.4%) Ranked 108= |
Although there is one record of a bird in song in Ireland and a handful in Scotland, Nightingales have not bred in either country. A hundred years ago the birds bred mainly south and east of the line from the Wash to the Severn — none in Cornwall and only a few in Southern Devon. They were regular in small numbers in eastern Wales and north to Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and East Yorkshire. Numbers (and range) seemed to gradually decline until about 1930 accelerating later. The last birds to breed in Wales were recorded in 1981. By the second Breeding Atlas there had been a net loss of 28.5% of 10-km squares. The survey completed in 1999 recorded 4,407 singing males. The estimate for the second Breeding Atlas was 5,000 to 6,000 with surveys of males resulting in 3,230 found in 1976 and 4,770 in 1980. The strongholds are in Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. The CES results, with significant declines in both adults (-42%) and young (-62%) birds caught, are very serious. The losses have probably several causes. In Britain the birds are at the limit of their range. Coppice and woodland management sympathetic to the birds has gradually diminished. The spread of deer has destroyed the thick ground cover needed where they prefer to breed. A very worrying loss from many areas but they seem to be relatively safe in some.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead