Most likely, it is a direct northern descendant of a southern, or western , nightingale. The area of the common nightingale extends from the western borders of Russia to the Yenisei River . The northern border captures the entire strip of southern taiga in the European part of Russia and in the Urals, sinks to the south to subtaiga forests in Western Siberia and goes into the forest-steppe on the territory of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The southern border captures the forest-steppe and steppe of the European part of Russia, the Caucasus and passes through the territory of the dry steppes and semi-deserts of Kazakhstan.
The common nightingale is a moisture-loving bird. The maximum number it reaches in the floodplain forests. Its favorite habitats are the solder and lowland wet oak forests of the subzone of coniferous-deciduous forests and oak forests of the European forest-steppe. The main scheme of nesting microstation of the common nightingale is the thick, shady thickets of viburnum, bird cherry, buckthorn and honeysuckle in the floodplain of the river, near a small key or forest spring. The nightingale readily nests in the dense thickets of moisture-loving grasses. The only important thing is that under the canopy of grass stand, which hides the bird well and pritenyayuschy land, remained bare, free from grass space. The best conditions of this type arise in the thickets of nettles, some umbrella and floodplain shrubs. An excellent example of favorable nesting microstations is the shady thickets of elder shady in damp lowland and ravine sites. In the forest zone, the nightingale is widely settled along the floodplains of forest streams and rivers, lowland alders.
Nightingale against the sky
Song - a set of repetitive whistles and clicks. Each element of the song (knee), the number of which can reach 12, is repeated several times. Creek - low "fuit-trr." Nightingale habits are very characteristic.
Like the charger , it holds high on thin legs apart, lowering its wings and raising its tail. Tugging at them, he impetuously bows and utters a quiet and very low, exactly rumbling urge, like "trrr", or a long and clear whistle (monophonic, without raising or lowering at the end). All these signs, together with the characteristic habitat, allow to recognize the nightingale without a song.
I. S. Turgenev in the story "About the Nightingales" in the words of a simple amateur bird-catcher described the song of an ordinary nightingale:
Nightingales are crappy for us: they sing badly, nothing can be understood, all knees get in the way, crack, hurry. And here they also have the nastiest thing: they will do this: “tru” and suddenly: “v!” - that will scream, as if it will plunge into the water. This is the nastiest thing. You will spit and go. Even vexation will become. legible and do not interfere with the knee. "And here are some knees:
- The first: “pulsing” - that way “bullets-bullets-bullets-bullets”
- Second: "tusk" - "kly-kly-kly", as desired (woodpecker)
- Third: “fraction” - it comes out about how to spill a fraction at once on the ground
- Fourth: "peal" - "rrrrrrr"
- Fifth: "ponkane" - you can almost understand "pon-pon-pon", usually the blackbirds so coca
- Sixth: "initiative" - that way "ti-vit", gently, a robin . This is not really a knee, but nightingales usually start like this
- Seventh: "Lesheva pipe" - protractively that way: "go-go-go-go-go", and there it is short: "that!"
- Eighth: "kukushkin flight" - the rarest knee. The cuckoo , when it flies, screams like that. Such a strong, ringing whistle
- Ninth: "gusachek" - "ha-ha-ha-ha." In maloarkhangelskih nightingales well this knee goes
- The tenth: “Yulina stukotnya” - like a whirlpool or organists like here - a sort of round whistle: “fuyuyu-yiyui”.
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IK Shamov, in his memoirs about nightingales, says: Our (Moscow) nightingales screamed perfectly with frogs, with three songs - croaking, pipe, like a worm placer, and a rattle - a wolf pipe and a peal ( nuthatch ). The roll was executed not deafly down, but strongly and long. In addition to these local nightingales, which we encountered in the surrounding forests and gardens, at the end of the 1920s there were Novoselsk (Tula) nightingales, beautifully screaming with knockoffs and cuckoo hops; Little Arkhangelsk, with a good song "husachek" - "ha-ha-ha-ha." But the best were imported from the southern provinces, Kursk and Chernigov ... Kursk, Kamenovskaya bird surprised with its fractions and attracted to itself the whole hunting world of that time. There were nine manners; especially fractions were issued "in circulation". Of the fractions, “greenfish” (forest canary) is remarkable, then “anxiety” (like a drum), desirable, pipe, trill, knock, whistle, tang, kukushkin flight. Berdichev's nightingales shouted with all the pipes: Polish, Leshevo, watering, frog. In addition, shouting crane ("Kurly") [3] .
In the middle zone of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia, the first nightingales appear on May 8–10. On these days you can hear their first songs. In the floodplains of large rivers and on river islands at this time a large number of singing males gather. In warmer years, they can sing from the first days of arrival and all at once, even on the span. The first to fly to the nesting sites are experienced old males. They can be identified by song. They occupy the best habitats, are settled at considerable distances from each other (200-300 m and more). Many old males climb into deaf thickets and nest away from the main nightingale settlements. Among these males, sometimes there are singers of amazing perfection, strength and structure of songs. These are the so-called “night nightingales”, often the first to begin evening singing around 22 o'clock, often singing in silence before the singing of all the birds and as if setting the tone for the whole vast forest. These males sing slowly, measuredly, surprisingly combining full, calm, slightly elongated sounds in comparison with the usual norm. Such singers have long appreciated the unusual structure of the song, the perfection of the main knees, the fullness and depth of sound, the purity of the phrases, and the amazing ability to alternate the songs of their repertoire, which is inaccessible to ordinary singers. Most of the old nightingales, the founders of the settlements, first occupy and develop relatively large areas. Skirmishes rarely occur between old birds, as they do not like to sing and nest next to each other. In the northern regions it is often the case that in the first days after arrival the nightingales sing only at the limit of hearing each other, at a distance of 1-2 km (sometimes 3 km). On quiet evenings, the nightingales hear each other well even at such great distances, as evidenced by the harmonization of the songs of even the most distant singers.
