A key reason for the dramatic decline in England’s nightingales is the rise in the deer population, particularly the small muntjac, a prolific all-year breeder. By eating their way through the understorey of woodland, deer effectively destroy the nightingales’ habitat.
Between 1994 and 2007, nightingale numbers in England – the bird is absent from Scotland and Wales – dropped by 60 per cent, and its range shrank towards the South-east, with concentrations limited to Kent, Sussex, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.