Common nightingale

Key identifying features

1. 1

   Warm plain brown above but with a distinctly rusty-red tail and rump, the flash seen as it dives into cover

2. 2

   Underparts plain buff-white, without the smudged breast spotting of thrush nightingale

3. 3

   Large dark eye with a pale eye-ring on a rounded head, and an upright stance

4. 4

   Hops on the ground inside thickets, raising and slowly lowering its tail when it pauses

5. 5

   Sings by night as well as by day from late April to June; the loud, whistling and rattling song identifies it without a sighting

Bird