The common nightingale is celebrated for its extraordinary song but has declined by over 90% in Britain since the 1960s as the dense, thorny scrub and coppice woodland it requires for breeding has been lost from the landscape.
Nightingale welfare is primarily threatened by the loss of the structurally complex dense scrub and coppiced woodland that provides nesting cover and insect-rich ground for foraging. Resumption of coppice management at traditional sites has produced rapid nightingale recolonisation, demonstrating that habitat restoration is effective. Sub-Saharan wintering habitat loss and hunting on migration routes are additional pressures. The species extreme site fidelity makes local population extinction essentially permanent without active reintroduction.