nightingale
鶯 centers on the nightingale, a small songbird known for its beautiful voice.
鶯 is a phono-semantic compound: the bottom 鳥 (bird) gives the meaning, and the top component 榮 (simplified to 栄 in modern Japanese) likely contributes the sound オウ. The character originally referred to a type of songbird.
The bottom is 鳥 (bird), and the top looks like a nest with twigs and a roof. Imagine a nightingale singing from its intricate nest.
For オウ, picture a nightingale singing a beautiful 'Ode' at dawn: Ode -> オウ, and the bird's song fills the air.
Japanese bush warbler (Horornis diphone); Japanese nightingale
warbler being in a valley
match made in heaven; perfect match; great coupling; bush warbler in a plum tree (a common motif in poetry and classical Japanese painting)
bush warbler singing even after spring has passed
black-naped oriole (Oriolus chinensis)
bun filled with sweet green pea paste
Lonicera gracilipes (species of honeysuckle)
greenish brown
Pteria brevialata (species of wing oyster)
warbler flying from a valley to a tree
blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea var. emphyllocalyx)