# Thrush nightingale (*Luscinia luscinia*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/thrush-nightingale  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), also called the Thrush-nightingale, is a bird in the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup, belonging to the family Muscicapidae in the order Passeriformes. It is a small, migratory bird of shrubland with an adult body mass of 23.8 g, and it is an invertivore at the carnivore trophic level. It lays 4.5 eggs per clutch with one clutch per year, the eggs are incubated for 13.5 days, and it reaches sexual maturity at 364.6 days. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category, and its geographic range covers 6,890,000 km².

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 23.8 g – 26.4 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Lifespan | 8.9 years |
| Diet | Invertivore |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 8.92 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | shrubland |
| Egg incubation | 13.5 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 4.5 |
| Age at maturity | 12 months |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Lifestyle | Generalist |
| Migration | Migratory |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Passeriformes
- family: Muscicapidae
- genus: Luscinia
- species: *Luscinia luscinia* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms: *Curruca luscinia*, *Daulias luscinia*, *Erithacus luscinia*, *Ficedula luscinia*, *Luscinia aedon*, *Luscinia bohmi*, *Luscinia eximia*, *Luscinia hybrida*, *Luscinia media*, *Luscinia okenii*, *Luscinia peregrina*, *Luscinia philomela*, *Lusciola luscinia*, *Motacilla luscinia*, *Philomela luscinia*, *Philomela magna*, *Philomela major*, *Philomela meruloides*, *Sylvia luscinia*

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the thrush nightingale?

The thrush nightingale is a bird in the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup, in the family Muscicapidae of the order Passeriformes.

### How heavy is a thrush nightingale?

An adult thrush nightingale weighs 23.8 g, with values up to 26.4 g reported. It falls in the small size class.

### What does the thrush nightingale eat?

The thrush nightingale is an invertivore, placed at the carnivore trophic level.

### What habitat does the thrush nightingale live in?

The thrush nightingale lives in shrubland, and it is a migratory bird.

### Is the thrush nightingale endangered?

No. The thrush nightingale is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.

### How long does a thrush nightingale live?

The thrush nightingale has a lifespan of 8.9 years.

### How many eggs does a thrush nightingale lay?

The thrush nightingale lays 4.5 eggs per clutch and has one clutch per year. The eggs are incubated for 13.5 days.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/thrush-nightingale