Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos
Breeding distribution change
Scarce summer visitor, breeds Europe, winters sub-Saharan Africa
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Nightingale maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
Map explanation
This map shows where changes occurred in the breeding season distribution of the species in Wiltshire between 1995-2000 and 2007-2012, as revealed by the fieldwork for Birds of Wiltshire (Wiltshire Ornithological Society 2007) and the shared fieldwork for Bird Atlas 2007-2011 (BTO 2013) and for Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2007-2012.
Gains and improvements
Status
Nos tetrads
Absent to present
21
2%
Present to breeding
1
<1%
Absent to breeding
4
<1%
No change
Status
Nos tetrads
Present in both
4
<1%
Breeding in both
6
1%
Losses and declines
Status
Nos tetrads
Present to absent
34
4%
Breeding to present
3
<1%
Breeding to absent
30
3%
Nightingales breed in northwest Africa and Europe north to Britain, Germany and Poland, thence east through the Caucasus, Turkey and parts of the Middle East to Iran and western Mongolia. All Nightingales winter in sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal across to Kenya.
In Britain they are absent from Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and most of England north and west of a line drawn from the Humber to the Severn. Within this range they have been steadily retreating to their main hot-spots in Sussex, Kent and Essex. Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded that overall their range has contracted by 43% since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas. Over the same period numbers in England are estimated to have fallen by 90%. The reasons for these decreases are not fully understood but are believed to include habitat loss due to factors such as increased browsing by an expanding deer population and the reduction in woodland coppicing.
In Wiltshire the historical records suggest that Nightingales were fairly common in the 19th century, a situation that continued until the mid 20th century. The 1968-72 Breeding Atlas noted a marked decline after a peak reached in about 1950; it recorded Nightingales present in 28 of the county's 33 core 10km squares; this had dropped to 25 squares in the 1988-91 Breeding Atlas and 21 in Birds of Wiltshire in which Nightingales were recorded in 78 tetrads, with breeding in 39 of them. WTA2 recorded them in 39 tetrads with breeding in only 11, concentrated in just two areas, CWP and SPTA(Centre)
.References
The following references are used throughout these species’ accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:
“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser
“Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007: Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011”-– Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: The Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland. BTO Books.
“WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.
"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.