During the 2012 breeding season, the BTO will be organising a full survey of breeding nightingales across Britain. The main aim of the survey is to map all singing males and compare their numbers and distribution with results from the previous national survey in 1999.

There will be early-morning tetrad visits (which can start up to an hour before sunrise) during the period 27 April to 14 May, and then optional nocturnal visits (between midnight and 3 am) during the period 18 May to 4 June, with these nocturnal visits targeted at males detected by the daytime surveys. These surveys will allow estimations of the distribution and population of territorial nightingales, and also the distribution and number of breeding pairs, as it should be possible to tell from the nocturnal surveys which males are actually paired. As well as the surveys of designated tetrads (for which printed maps will be supplied), additional daytime or nocturnal visits to any sites will be encouraged, and also casual records (in BirdTrack) will be encouraged.

Despite a large recent decline in the Sussex population of nightingales, the county still has a significant proportion of the national nightingale population and will make an important contribution to this national survey. There are 350 tetrads selected for surveys, with 200 of these being priorities for the nocturnal surveys, so a large number of volunteers will be needed. The Sussex Ornithological Society plans to use all of the data collected through this survey to obtain an up-to-date population estimate for nightingales within Sussex, as well as to inform conservation measures for this species within the county.

For further information click here and if you are interested please contact Helen Crabtree at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or on 01444 441687.