Tag Archives: nightingale

From the Balcony: Redstart, Robin and Flycatcher

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Just over a month ago the afternoons and evenings here in Berlin were still filled with the beautiful songs of blackbirds, blackcaps and nightingales. Now our yard is much quieter, with the exception of a few noisemakers.

RobinThis robin wakes early every morning and begin its many tasks, one of them being clucking at the neighbor’s cat. The robin must have a little brood somewhere in the yard that needs plenty of feeding and defending. While I took this picture, it had been clucking at the cat for some time, despite having a collection of insects in its mouth.

Common Redstart

 

This beautiful Common Redstart is still busy defending his territory around our apartment. His song is loud, repetitive and insistent, and therefore tiring after about 15 minutes, but he is still endearing thanks to his beautiful coloration and cheery tail-bobbing.

Spotted Flycatcher in Repose

The Spotted Flycatchers are very quiet, yet are actively swooping around the yard whenever I look out. Here is one in a rare moment of repose.

In addition to these birds, there are some tantalizing songs coming from the treetops lately. I don’t know if they are new or if I just never noticed them before, what with the pretty constant noise of blackbird excitement over the last few months. Unfortunately the leaves are so thick that I can’t yet identify the singers, but maybe in the coming days…

Icterine Warbler

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Icterine WarblerI finally found the Icterine Warbler here in Berlin! Just when I was beginning to believe that this bird is a mythical creature, I ran into two of them fighting in the trees on my way to get coffee this morning.

I was too non-caffeinated to know what I was hearing: my first thought was that a few nightingales decided to speak a different language today. This bird has a very wild song that cycles through an incredible variety of calls, trills, whistles and buzzes. At times it sounded as if an entire aviary was concentrated into one point in the tree.  After staring in frustration at a bunch of trees and nearly twisting my ankle on the curb while trying to follow the sound, I decided it would be safer for everyone if I went on to my coffee. Happily this guy was still singing and yelling and jumping around all over the place when I returned, and with my sharpened senses and quickened reflexes I was able to capture a few shots of him. His friend/enemy had flown off to a nearby tree, but was singing just as madly in the distance.

You can see a video of him here. (Unfortunately he really wanted to show me his butt for the video, sorry.)

Thanks Steve for letting me know about this bird!

Icterine Warbler

The rear end of a nightingale

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The nightingales are back! As of three nights ago we have been hearing their wild songs from our apartment, and a quick walk yesterday evening brought us by at least three of them belting it out with all they have. These little birds are notoriously difficult to photograph. They like to hide in thickets and dense foliage and prefer to sing only when the dusk is advancing. But thanks to my awesome new camera I was able to capture the back side of a singing nightingale last night. So here you have it, a nightingale’s butt:Butt of nightingale

 

If you’d like to hear his crazy song, it is recorded here. And here you can hear some strange croaking noises that he made.

If you’d rather not look at his butt while listening, here is a lovely picture of last night’s full moon.

moon

Arrivals from Africa

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Suddenly the Tiergarten is full of new arrivals, many of them having braved the long journey from central Africa to arrive in central Berlin. Today I saw a wonderful little common redstart, just landed, hopping around eating insects in the Englisher Garten. Two days ago I saw and heard a lesser whitethroat, who supposedly also spends his summers in Africa and was jumping around on bushes near the Spree. And today I heard the lovely song of the male blackcap and saw his lady, with a dusty red cap, eating buds on a branch.

And to top all of this off, last night I heard the song of the nightingale for the first time this year. It is hard to believe that these little birds have the strength to fly over the Sahara and immediately start belting their hearts out as soon as they land in the city. I am very grateful to them, and I’m happy that they all arrived safely.