The national animal of Ukraine is the common nightingale. It holds a very important place in national folklore and legend and is very common throughout the country. It can be found in many different environments in Ukraine and is one of the most recognizable in the country. They are known for their powerful song.
Ukraine’s national animal is a wisely picked, beautiful and haunting animal with one of the most beautiful songs in all of nature.
They are distributed widely across Europe and Asia and will often spend winters in Africa, but they are nonetheless very specifically important to Ukraine as well.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Ukraine?
The national animal of Ukraine is the nightingale.
They are among the most important animals symbolically in the country, and so have been adopted as the national animal and are frequently seen as symbols of many different things.
There is a legend of how nightingales once lived only in India, and one adventurous nightingale chose to go and visit Ukraine.
That nightingale heard the people of Ukraine singing sad songs, and so sang its own song to try and cheer the people up.
As the people responded with new and happy songs, and the legend goes that they have visited Ukraine every spring ever since to hear the songs of Ukraine and share their own.
The country’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko, notes that the memory alone of the birdsong is enough to make people happy.
Clearly, then, the nightingale holds a very important place in Ukrainian folklore.
They are thought of not just as birds with beautiful songs that visit during the warmer months, but as specifically doing so in order to hear the songs of the Ukrainian people as well.
There is a two way relationship, you might say, between Ukraine and the birds.
The nightingale is recognized as its own species, but this is split into three subspecies.
The first is the western nightingale, found in Western Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor.
The Caucasian nightingale is found from eastern Turkey to southwestern Iran.
They spend the winter in East Africa.
The eastern nightingale, finally, is found from the Aral Sea to Mongolia, and also winters in East Africa.
The common nightingale is a bit larger than a robin, and is wholly plain brown besides the reddish tail; there’s not much sexual dimorphism, either, so males and females mostly look very similar.
Though an extremely common animal, then, they play a very specific role in the minds of the Ukrainian people.
But where does the name come from?
Why are nightingales called nightingales?
The English name “nightingale” derives ultimately from Old English.
Obviously from the word “night” first of all, but then the Old English galan, meaning “to sing”.
These birds may not be physically remarkable, then, but they are universally revered for their beautiful song and this is where they get their name in English.
Naturally, in Ukraine, the nightingale is called something entirely different.
Given their long position in Ukrainian culture and folklore as singers and harbingers of spring, they are called in Ukrainian soloveiko, which is of course an Anglicization of the name in the Cyrillic Ukrainian script.
This is essentially a term of endearment, showing again how important these birds are to the Ukrainian people.
Given the fact that they are seasonal and migrate south for the winter, they are further important to Ukraine as symbols of summer and spring despite the fact that they are largely nocturnal.
They will sing a great deal at night and this is always a more haunting and significant image for many people.
They do, though, also sing with the dawn chorus to herald in the morning.
Why, then, do they sing at night?
Why do nightingales sing at night?
There are a variety of reasons that nightingales sing, and the reason they do it at night is simply because they are a largely nocturnal species.
In most bird species, most of the singing is done by the males, and this is true of nightingales as well.
They sing at night usually to attract the attention of a mate. They will sit in trees and attempt to lure down roaming females.
Sometimes, though, the singing is also thought to be territorial—a warning to others to stay away.
This is far less important to nightingales than it is to other birds, but still vital.
Are nightingales nocturnal?
Nightingales are mostly nocturnal, yes, although they are also active in the early morning hours after the sun has come up.
They do most of their singing and activity during the night, but they also sing heavily after the sun has come up and from time to time you may even simply find them out and about during full daylight hours.
For the most part, though, nightingales are indeed nocturnal as the name suggests, and this was much more important to the people of England than to Ukraine, apparently!
These haunting birds have firmly lodged themselves in the collective human unconscious, then, and can be found in the myths and legends of many different countries.
They have been uniquely important to Ukraine, though, and thus have been made the country’s national animal as a symbol of a variety of aspects of Ukrainian life.
Though an apparently humble and simple looking bird, they have some of the most beautiful music in all of nature.