The beauty of nightingale song

Nightingales are best known for their vocal abilities. Male birds especially, sing for hours on end each night during the breeding season - and none more so than during the first full moon of May.

But numbers have declined strongly over recent decades. Today Programme presenter Martha Kearney went for a late-night eavesdrop with the writer Richard Mabey.

(Image: Nightingale; Credit: Reuters)