A singing success for Nightingales on RSPB nature reserves - RSPB

Numbers of singing male Nightingales reach their second highest level in more than a decade across RSPB nature reserves.

One of nature’s most famous singers, the Nightingale, is making a comeback in the UK. Visitors to RSPB nature reserves in the southeast of England could now find themselves serenaded by one of our beautiful vocalists, with 176 singing males recorded in 2025, a 7% increase from 2024 and a second record high.

A species under pressure

Nightingales migrate to breed in the UK from mid-April after spending the winter in Africa. Their song has inspired musicians and writers for centuries, and they were the first ever wildlife to be broadcast on UK radio. But the species is on the UK's Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern, and between 1995 and 2024 the UK breeding population dropped by 34%.

Unlike Nightingales that breed elsewhere in Europe, all the UK's Nightingales spend the winter in one small area of West Africa. This means that environmental factors there can have a direct impact on how many birds make it back to breed here each spring. They also return to exactly the same spot to nest every year, so having good quality habitat waiting for them when they arrive matters.

Helping Nightingales soar once again

The drop in the UK’s breeding Nightingales is mainly due to the wide-scale loss of the scrub and thicket that they favour for breeding. Further contributing factors are a rise in deer populations that browse and damage such habitats, and a lack of coppice management of woodland. Where woodland isn't coppiced, the dense regrowth they need simply doesn't grow.