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“It was the nightingale, and not the lark...” says Juliet to her Romeo. Not only for this reason is Verona, the setting of Shakespeare’s drama, famous for its songbirds. For shortly before sunrise, when the arias in the famous arena have died away and lights have gone out, another, new kind of singing pervades the city: nightingales now sing, and even if one cannot see them at first, they can be discovered everywhere in the city. It’s a Veronese custom to keep a nightingale in a cage, yet most of them actually live in freedom. In May all Verona is one great concert of birds – which, however, does not please everyone here. Felix Heidinger ventures forth in Verona to find the best singers among the birds of Europe: nightingale and lark. And he discovers something amazing! Not only that Shakespeare had exact knowledge of the biology and the behaviour of both these birds. These inconspicuous singers have learned a great deal about dealing with people in the course of recent decades. And the voice of the nightingale is stronger than ever, its singing more resonant than 200 years ago.