In a dune strip in Brittany we thought we heard a nightingale. The nightingale prefers to stay in dense shrubs and is therefore difficult to spot. They have a very exuberant singing, but a subtly colored plumage: the upper side is warm brown with orange-brown tail-feathers. The underside is grey-brown with a slightly lighter throat.
This took place in September, so I suspected the bird was on its way to Africa. From July on they migrate southwest over France and the Iberian Peninsula to tropical Africa. By mid-September most of them have left and they return in mid-April.
The Netherlands form the northern edge of the nightingales area. Their menu consists of all kinds of animal food: insects, earwigs, spiders, daddy-longlegs and earthworms, supplemented with various types of berries. They forage walking on the ground, often in dark spots under brushwood.