The monitoring, annually conducted by the Russian Union for Bird Protection, is of a unique format as it welcomes each and everyone to take part in the survey. Anyone who happens to hear a nightingale sing can report to the Union's Moscow branch via a special telephone line.
The Union held its first 'Nightingale Night' in 2000, with volunteers sending reports solely by e-mail. That restriction notwithstanding, the 2000 monitoring covered as much as a quarter of Moscow's territory and let the ornithologists estimate the capital's nightingale population at about 800-1,000 pairs.
In subsequent years, Muscovites tended to take an increasingly active part in the monitoring, with as many as 2,000 field reports submitted to the Union over each of the previous 'Nightingale Nights.'
The Union pointed out that over the past years some of the volunteers have become committed to the cause and now take part in the monitoring on a regular basis. Some Muscovites have been keeping continuous record of nightingale activities in a particular area of the city. Many respondents reported on unusual locations for nightingales' nesting. There were reports, for example, about nightingales singing near the Kremlin, with one soloing right behind the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square.
This year, Moscow nightingales started to sing rather late - in the first days of May. Ornithologists estimate that up to 5,000 nightingale pairs have been nesting in the Russian capital over the past few years.
