Singing nightingale

The Citizen Science project "Forschungsfall Nachtigall", initiated by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, will explore the song of nightingales throughout Germany from April 2019. Does the nightingale sing in dialects, are there regional differences? Which breeding sites do they prefer and which longings do people associate with the nightingale singing? The citizens' research project is therefore calling on people all over Germany to take up nightingales in their surroundings and share them with the project's database, automatically indicating place and time. This requires the free app "Naturblick" developed by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

In the spring of 2018, more than 1100 citizens, mostly from Berlin, have already documented the love songs of the nightingales found in the capital. Thus more than 2000 new types of verses were added to the previously scientifically known repertoire of songs that make up the love songs of the nightingale males. But the Berlin nightingales sing more complex than expected. In order to better understand whether it is not only the nightingales of the capital that sing so many different songs, the scientists at the Museum für Naturkunde need Germany-wide recordings of the nightingale's singing. Perhaps nightingales in the south or west of Germany sing other songs than in Berlin?

The citizens' research project "Forschungsfall Nachtigall" therefore calls on people all over Germany to record nightingales in their surroundings! If you have a smartphone, you can use the free app "Naturblick" to record songs anonymously or with a pseudonym with a click and share them with the project's database with automatic location and time information.

On the basis the place data the researchers of the team examine then whether nightingales sing also really differently elsewhere than the citizens of Berlin birds, where and in which habitats nightingales are in rather rural areas and whether they can be disturbed by light or noise. The recordings of the songs will be analysed in detail and examined for regional differences.

Throughout the year, a large number of events are planned in collaboration with civic researchers in order to illuminate the nightingale phenomenon and its song in the context of cultural studies. The opening event of the project - the NachtiGala - will take place on the evening of 26 April in the Dinosaur Hall of the Museum für Naturkunde. On 10 May the event "Picnic & Poetry" will take place in the Volkspark Friedrichshain. Every Friday and Saturday from the end of April to the beginning of June there will be a midnight excursion in a Berlin green area. All details can be found here: https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/de/museum/veranstaltungen

The project is funded for two years by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of the Citizen Research funding area in order to advance the cooperation between citizens and scientists in terms of content and methodology.

More information and contact

www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin