Nightingale

We have a bird outside that has been singing up a storm all day and all night for the last several weeks.

Miguel said that it was a crazy bird, singing at 3 am when everyone else was sleeping. Miguel's culture believes that the bird is bringing a message - a warning that something is going to happen. "Be careful!", is the general idea. He tried to explain something to me about the bird and the Virgin Mary, but I couldn't follow his train of thought, and an internet search yielded nothing.

I'm not much of a bird expert - I recognize by sight birds like the robin, blue jay, cardinal, sparrow, black bird, crow, pigeon, dove, seagull, eagle, hawk, etc. Here in Mexico I've also recognized finches, canaries, parrots, and hummingbirds. I am familiar with the songs and calls of many of the birds, but the bird singing outside on the wire was one I was not familiar with.

However, I have heard of nightingales, and just because of the word 'night' in the name and the fact that the bird sings at night, I decided to google the bird.

I found a great photo of the bird on one site, and another site listing some samples of the bird's songs.

I learned the following from Wikipedia:

"Its song is particularly noticeable at night because few other birds are singing. This is why its name (in several languages) includes "night". Only unpaired males sing regularly at night, and nocturnal song is likely to serve attracting a mate. Singing at dawn, during the hour before sunrise, is assumed to be important in defending the bird's territory. Nightingales sing even more loudly in urban or near-urban environments, in order to overcome the background noise."

I feel sorry for the bird, because he's been singing all night long for weeks and has yet to come up with a mate. So far Miguel is the only one answering his calls - he mimics the bird's calls and the bird seems to call back to him. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the bird thinks Miguel wants to be his mate?