Tweet of the Day

Ashley Davies of the Slimbridge Wetland Centre reveals why a kingfisher changed his life. Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous serie...

Val Thompson describes the comfort she derives from seeing pink footed geese in Norfolk, a place she visited with her late husband, and how reconnecting with birds has helped her through bereavement. Producer Maggie Ayre.

Ideally suited to its mountain habitat the ptarmigan enthralled photographer John McPherson as he climbed in the Cairngorms one winter's day. At one point a wheeling lone bird crash landed beside him, looking almost embarrassed to take a tumble. Producer Maggie Ayre.

Young conservationist and Birdgirl Mya Rose Craig aged 14 recalls the excitement of seeing a black browed albatross in Cornwall at the age of seven, thousands of miles from where it should be seen in Antarctica. Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring...

In this programme, Bristol based bird scientist Peter Rock talks about his decades of research into urban lesser black backed gulls, including surprising finds in Morocco. Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voice...

In this programme, London based chef and restaurant owner Cyrus Todiwala talks about his love of the city's house sparrow, bringing a bit of joy to the bustling streets. Producer Maggie Ayre.

Since he was a small boy, Fermanagh based bird blogger Dara McAnulty has been enthralled by birds. For this Tweet of the Day Dara draws a comparison with seeing whooper swans near to his home in Northern Ireland with the swans from Irish mythology, the Children of Lir. Dara, who has Aspergers Syndrome, blogs as Young Fermanagh Naturalist to convey his love of nature and wildlife through the writte...

David Lindo, otherwise known as the urban birder, recalls his first encounter with the ring ouzel on his local patch near to Wormwood Scrubs in London. Producer Maggie Ayre.

In this programme young girl Gabi Mann recalls how she became friends with American crows in her suburban garden in Seattle, one of whom she named Baby Face. She and her mother began feeding the crows regularly in 2011 and soon the crows began bringing Gabi gifts. Over time these trinckets and corvid offerings amounted to a sizeable hoard which Gabi treasures. Producer Maggie Ayre.

Worcestershire lawyer Mat Waddington recounts an encounter with a long tailed tit tapping at his window, his girlfriend at the other end of the village was similarly visited by a long tailed window tapper. Was this the same bird flying between the two houses which Mat describes as being the lovebird of Hallow? Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdso...

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nat...

The best bits of International Dawn Chorus day when radio stations across the globe come together and broadcast the dawn chorus in real time. Pop star and bird lover Will Young joins Brett Westwood and a gang of unexpected bird lovers as Radio 4 throws an all-nighter in search of the Dawn Chorus. Going on air just after midnight and staying up till 7am Brett and Will host a night of conversation,...

Michael Palin presents the secretive chowchilla from Queensland, Australia. The chowchilla gets its name from its song, which is one of the most distinctive sounds of the coastal rainforest of north-east Queensland. You're not likely to see the bird though because it spends its time skulking on the forest floor. Chowchillas belong to the family known as logrunners because they feed and nest on or...

Michael Palin presents the Mauritius kestrel from the island of Mauritius. Today the calls of several hundred Mauritius kestrels ring out across the forests and farmland of the island, so it's hard to believe that as recently as the early 1970s, only four birds could be found in the wild. These smart chestnut falcons were almost wiped out by a cocktail of threats ...destruction of their evergreen...

Michael Palin presents the avian record breaking ostrich in the Kalahari Desert. Ostriches are ornithological record-breakers. The black and white adult male ostrich is taller and heavier than any other living bird, reaching almost 3 metres in height and weighing a whopping 150 kilograms. Females are smaller but lay the largest eggs of any bird. The ostrich's eye measures 5cm in diameter and is th...

Michael Palin presents the Asian koel's arrival to an Indian orchard. This long-tailed glossy blue-black bird, is a well-known British harbinger of spring, and like its British counterpart, it is a cuckoo. The koel's plaintive call is heard from late March until July around villages and in wooded countryside from Pakistan east to Indonesia and southern China. In India, it symbolises the birth of a...

Michael Palin presents the northern cardinal from a New York's Central Park. Northern Cardinals are finch-like birds and make British robins look positively anaemic. They are common residents in the south and east of North America where they live in woods, parks and gardens. Your first sighting of these vermilion birds with their black masks and outrageous crests comes as a shock. They seem too tr...

Michael Palin presents the black-nest swiftlet deep inside an Indonesian cavern. The Black-nest swiftlet landing on the cave wall, begins work on one of the most expensive and sought- after items connected with any bird; its nest. The swiftlet's tiny bowl -shaped nest is highly-prized as the main ingredient for bird's nest soup and is built by the male from strands of his saliva which harden into...

Michael Palin presents the magnificent frigatebird a true oceanic bird, and resembling a hook-billed, pterodactyl of a seabird. Magnificent frigatebirds are some of the most accomplished aeronauts of the tropical oceans. Their huge wingspans of over two metres and long forked tails allow them to soar effortlessly and pluck flying fish from the air, and also harass seabirds. These acts of piracy ea...

Michael Palin presents the wild budgerigar from Australia. Budgerigars are small Australian parrots whose common name may derive from the aboriginal "Betcherrygah' which, roughly speaking, means "good to eat" though it could mean " good food" as budgerigars follow the rains and so their flocks would indicate where there might be seeds and fruits for people. Where food and water are available toget...

Michael Palin presents the iconic bald eagle from Alaska. In days of yore, when bald meant "white" rather than hairless, these magnificent birds with a two metre wingspans were common over the whole of North America. They were revered in native American cultures. The Sioux wore eagle feathers in their head-dresses to protect them in battle and the Comanche celebrated the birds with an eagle dance....

Michael Palin presents the scarlet macaw from Costa Rica. The Scarlet Macaw is a carnival of a bird, eye-catching, noisy and vibrant, with a colour-scheme verging on bad taste. Its brilliant red feathers clash magnificently with the bright yellow patches on its wings, and contrast with its brilliant blue back and very long red tail. It has a white face and a massive hooked bill and it produces ear...

Michael Palin presents the kea from a windswept mountain in New Zealand. A a snow-capped mountain in New Zealand's South Island are not a place where you'd expect to find a parrot, least of all a carnivorous one (and with a penchant for rubber). But this is the home of the kea. Keas are curious birds in every sense of the word. Drab greenish brown, they're the world's only Alpine parrot. When they...

Michael Palin presents the black sicklebill of New Guinea. The black sicklebill is a breath-taking creature. It's a bird of paradise, and the male sicklebill's black feathers gleam with metallic blue, green and purple highlights. But his most striking features are a slender scythe-like bill, and an extremely long sabre-shaped tail whose central plumes can reach 50cm in length. During courtship, he...

Michael Palin presents the oilbird, from a Venezuelan cavern. Demonic screeching's and the rush of unseen wings mixed with a volley of strange clicks are the sound backdrop to oilbirds. Oilbirds are known in Spanish as guacharos .."the wailing ones". These bizarre-looking brown birds with huge mouths, long broad wings and long tails were seen in 1799 by the explorer Alexander von Humboldt in 1817...