Philip Lombardi, age 14, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, for his question:
Where are real nightingales to be found?
The true nightingale makes his summer home in the temperate regions of Europe and takes up winter residence in Northern Africa. He has a somewhat larger first cousin who nests in the Middle East and parts of Asia. In winter, he too is found farther south.
In our own American woods and leafy thickets we can find several relatives of the true nightingale, and some of these New World birds are wonderful singers too. Both the Old and New World songsters are thrushes, members of nature's most talented family of musicians. Our early ancestors listened to their lyrical bird songs when their own musicians had mastered no more than the rhythm of beating drums. It would be nice to think that nature's songbirds played the role of patient teachers, coaxing and inspiring mankind to advance his own musical studies. And most likely this is quite true.
The famous nightingale of legend and poetry is found only in the Old World:. The shy little bird of the woods and thickets is seldom seen, and his unforgettable arias are often performed at night, when the noisy hubbub of the day is quiet. His opera season lasts from mid
April to mid June. This is the courting and nesting season, when the talented songster resides in France or England, Spain or Portugal, or some other seasonally mild climate of Europe. Meantime his slightly larger first cousin, the bulbul, is pouring similar enchanting arias through the midnight air among thickets in the Middle East and parts of Asia. Bird experts suspect that the celestial bird music serves two purposes. For one thing, it is a declaration of property rights, serving notice that no other family of nesting nightingales may take up residence within the sound of the master singer's voice. His famous tone of honey sweet melancholy becomes more forceful and determined when another bird of his species ventures within range. This insistence on private property protects the hunting grounds needed to provide enough bugs and grubs and wriggly caterpillars for the proud bird's brood of growing youngsters.
The second purpose is just as practical, besides being as sentimental as we would like it to be. It is a love song to serenade a mate and coax her to assume the role of motherhood. The smallish bird wears modest plumage of leafy brown and perhaps the superb beauty real nightingales of his voice is intended to make up for his inconspicuous appearance.
Many male thrushes ignore their family duties but not so the nightingale. The father bird helps to build a nest in the low thickets. The dead leaves used to camouflage the shaggy cradle match the warm browns of the parent birds' plumage. There are four to six olive brown eggs, and both birds take turns incubating them. Both parents also share the baby sitting duties of feeding and educating the youngsters. But without musical instruction from their accomplished parents, they never learn the true nightingale's full operatic range.