Thrush Nightingale ( Luscinia luscinia, family: Muscicapidae)

thrush nightingale kruger national park birds The Thrush Nightingale (Latin name Luscinia luscinia) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 609 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 927 also a picture of the Thrush Nightingale on page 960. The Thrush Nightingale belongs to the family of birds classified as Muscicapidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Thrush Nightingale is also known by these other names: Sprosser.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the Thrush Nightingale was called the

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Thrush Nightingale is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park.

In terms of distribution of the Thrush Nightingale in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Thrush Nightingale : see above distribution map.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Thrush Nightingale is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the Thrush Nightingale is about 16 cms and its weight is about 25 gms

The male and female Thrush Nightingale have the same plumage and colours

  • Head is brown.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is brown.
  • Throat is grey, black.
  • Back is brown.
  • Legs are pink.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Thrush Nightingale feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Fruits

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Thrush Nightingale takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Thrush Nightingale is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Thrush Nightingale are: woodlands

You will normally see the Thrush Nightingale by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Lysternagtegaal

German ... Sprosser

Portuguese ... Rouxinol-russo

French ... Rossignol progn

Dutch ... Noordse Nachtegaal

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 609

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za