The Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos has traditionally been associated with coppiced woodland in the southern and eastern counties of England. Recent survey work conducted by volunteers for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has shown that breeding Nightingales have an increasing preference for scrub in low-lying river valleys. In the late 1970s, only a quarter of Nightingale territories were located in scrub, whereas in 1999 nearly half of all territories were in this habitat.