Alle afleveringen van Tweet of the Day – pagina 10 van 15

African Jacana

30 september 2014 · 2 min

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Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the wetland loving African Jacana. Being rich chestnut coloured above, with black heads, white throats, each has a patch of blue skin above the bill, known as a shield, Jacanas are waders with very long slender toes which allow them to walk on floating plants giving them the name lily-trotters. Widespread in wet places south of the Sahara desert they may become nomadic moving between wetlands as seasonal water levels change. They have an unusual mating system. Females mate with several males, but leave their partners to build the nest, incubate the eggs and bring up the chicks. With up to 3 or 4 mates rearing her different broods, her strategy is to produce the maximum number of young lily-trotters each year.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

African Southern Ground Hornbill

29 september 2014 · 2 min

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Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the African southern ground hornbill. Ground hornbills live in south and south east Africa. They're glossy black birds, as big as turkeys with huge downward-curving bills. The bird produces a deep booming sound that reverberates over long distances, sometimes as much as 5 kilometres, across its grassy habitat. Preferring to walk rather than fly, they strut about in the long grass, searching for prey. Snakes are a favourite: even deadly puff adders are no match for the birds' bludgeoning beaks.

Emperor Penguin

26 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the emperor penguin from the Antarctic Peninsula. With temperatures down to minus 50oC, midwinter blizzards scouring one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, this is not an obvious location for raising young. Yet at the heart of this landscape, the world's largest penguin, the emperor, stands guard over their young. Tightly-packed colonies of hundreds or sometimes thousands of birds huddle together, to conserve heat. The male broods the single egg on his feet, protected under folds of bare abdominal skin. Females travel up to 100km from the colony in search of food, using a technique called tobogganing which is far more efficient than walking on their short legs. Harsh though the landscape is in midwinter, all this activity is co-ordinated to allow the young to fledge into the relatively warmth of an Antarctic summer.

Laughing Gull

25 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the laughing gull off the Florida coast. In summer, the hearty peal of laughter is one of the characteristic sounds people hear along the North American east coast where laughing gulls come to breed. America's version of the British black-headed gull they are easy to recognise as they patrol the seashore in search for food. Like many gulls they eat what they can find and will scavenge at rubbish dumps, and will even feast on the eggs of horseshoe crabs which spawn in Deleware Bay each spring. Some become swept up in autumnal hurricanes and having crossed the Atlantic, occasionally turn up on a European's bird-watching list.

Eurasian Scops Owl

24 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Eurasian scops owl found in Mediterranean regions. In summer a mournful monosyllabic call interrupts the heady scented air of a Greek olive grove at dusk. A male scops owl is proclaiming his territory with a repeated call lasting over 20 minutes. Hearing these tiny owls, no bigger than a starling is one thing, seeing one roosting in an old tree is quite a challenge. They feed mainly on moths and beetles which they hunt for in open country with scattered trees. By autumn these largely nocturnal birds are heading south to sub-Saharan Africa, until the following spring when once again the olive groves resound to their plaintive song.

Vogelkop Bowerbird

23 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Vogelkop bowerbird of west New Guinea. The forest floor resembles a market stall with neat piles of brightly-coloured fruits and leaves placed carefully on a mossy lawn in front of a cave of thatched twigs. This is the work of the Vogelkop bowerbird. Native to New Guinea and Australia, this drab olive brown male, uses aesthetic tastes to bring vibrancy of colour into his life: and to woo his mate. His brightly coloured exhibits are graded for size and colour and any withered or faded items are quickly replaced. Satisfied with his work, he whistles, and growls to entice her to a private view. After mating the female departs to rear her single chick unaided, while the male returns to the task of tending his creation.

Sociable Weaver

22 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the sociable weaver of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. Travel through the dry margins of the Kalahari Desert and the telegraph poles stretching across the treeless plain could be wearing giant haystacks. These colossal communal homes are actually a home to the sociable weaver. These sparrow relatives build the largest nesting structure of any bird in the world. A hundred pairs may breed in a nest weighing nearly one tonne, built on isolated trees or any suitable man made structure such as pylons. Developed over generations these colonial nests provide a cooling structure during the searing heat of day and a warm refuge for night time roosts in this inhospitable landscape. Other animals find a use for these structures, from nesting vultures using it as a safe platform, to snakes; who if they enter the nest, can have free rein to this weaver larder.

Black Stork

21 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the globally widespread but secretive black stork. High up in a forest canopy, the black stork is a large but fairly secretive and mostly silent bird. They are also strong migrants capable of sustained flight, flying up to 7,000 kilometres or more, often over open seas. Black storks are summer visitors to eastern Europe and breed from Germany across Russia to Japan. A small population is resident in Spain, but most birds migrate south in winter to Africa, India or China. Unlike their relative the more flamboyant and colonial nesting white stork, black storks are a solitary nester. It is at this time of the year adults can produce a few grunts or bill clapping sounds during courtship, the young however are far more vocal at the nest.

Superb Lyrebird

18 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the superb lyrebird of eastern Australia. Superb lyrebirds are about the size of pheasants. During courtship, as the male struts and poses, he unleashes a remarkable range of sounds. Up to 80% of the lyrebird's display calls are usually of other wild birds. However, if kept in captivity, they can mimic a chainsaw, camera click, gunshot and a whole host of other man made sound. Research recently discovered that the lyrebird co-ordinates his dancing displays to particular sounds. But superb lyrebirds are promiscuous performers and it's quite likely that another male may have played the leading role while he dances and sings away.

Red-headed Woodpecker

17 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the red-headed woodpecker found in North America. With its inky black wings, snow white body and crimson hood, the red-headed woodpecker is one of the most striking members of its family, a real 'flying checker-board'. This striking Woodpecker has an ancient past, fossil records go back 2 million years and the Cherokee Indians used this species as a war symbol. More recently and nestled amongst Longfellow's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, the grateful Hiawatha gave the red headed woodpecker its red head in thanks for its service to him.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Spix's Macaw

16 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the now extinct in the wild, Spix's macaw. The Spix's macaw was declared extinct in 2000 when the last known wild born male disappeared from its final refuge in Brazil. Fortunately this strikingly beautiful member of the parrot family survives in captivity. The Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation centre in Qatar is providing a reservoir for an organised breeding programme which is now managed by several conservation organisations under the guidance of the Brazilian government. Soon it is hoped the bird that inspired the film Rio, can once more fly free in the wild.

Guira Cuckoo

15 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the guira cuckoo of central South America. Guira cuckoos break all the usual rules of their family. They are very sociable and travel in noisy gangs, feeding and roosting together. But what makes the behaviour of guira cuckoos so different is that several females often lay their eggs in a single nest, sometimes as many as 20 eggs which are tended by the respective mothers . This is known as co-operative breeding. Whether a female recognises her own eggs isn't certain, but it's possible that they can distinguish them by variable markings on the eggshells and single them out for special care.

Wrybill

12 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the New Zealand wrybill. The wrybill is an inconspicuous wader yet it is unique. It is the only bird in the world whose bill is bent sideways , and as it happens, always to the right. In the shingly, gravelly world it inhabits alongside fast flowing rivers, the wrybill's beak is the perfect shape for finding food. With neat, rapid movements, it sweeps aside small stones to reveal insects beneath. Endemic to New Zealand in winter dense flocks gather and display, their highly co-ordinated aerial movements having been described as a flung scarfe across the sky.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Dupont's Lark

11 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Dupont's lark of southern Europe and North Africa. The European home for the Duponts lark is the arid grasslands of south-east Spain where Spaghetti Westerns were once filmed. The Dupont's lark is notoriously difficult to find as it skulks between tussocks of dry but at dawn and again at sunset, male Dupont's larks emerge from their hiding places and perform display flights over their grassy territories. As they rise into the sky their song is a melancholy refrain, which once heard is rarely forgotten.

White-Bearded Manakin

10 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the White-Bearded manakin of tropical South America. The sound of party-poppers exploding in a forest clearing tells you that white-bearded manakins are displaying at a lek. At a carefully chosen spot each male clears the forest floor of leaves and other debris before his performance begins. The commonest display is the snap-jump. As he jumps forward he strikes the back of his wings together creating a loud snapping sound followed by an excited "pee-you" call. Snap-jumps are often followed by grunt jumps or a manoeuvre known as "slide-down-the-pole". These displays continue throughout the day, but intensify when females visit.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Florida Scrub Jay

9 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Florida scrub jay. Less than 6,000 Florida scrub jays exist in the wild, yet these are some of the most intelligent creatures in the world. Long term research has revealed an extraordinary intelligence. If other jays are around, a bird will only hide its food when the other bird is out of sight. It will even choose a quieter medium, and rather than pebbles for example, to further avoid revealing its hidden larder to sharp-eared competitors.

Red-winged Blackbird

8 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the North American red-winged blackbird. The arrival of spring in the USA is heralded by the unmistakable "conk-ra-lee" call of the red-winged blackbird. The male blackbirds, who are un-related to the European blackbird, flutter their red and yellow wing-patches like regimental badges to announce their territories. The numbers of Red-winged blackbirds has increased spectacularly in the mid 20th century as more land was converted to growing crops on which the birds feed. Today at a winter roost hundreds of thousands, even millions of birds darken the skies over the plantations or marshes in which they will spend the night - a loud and unforgettable spectacle.

Brown Noddy

5 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents a seabird with a worldwide distribution, the brown noddy. Expert fliers, the brown noddy is seldom seen near land and is highly pelagic, wandering extensively in warm tropical waters where it searches for small fish and squid which are captured by hover-dipping and contact-dipping. However in the Galapagos Islands, brown noddies have learnt to sit on the heads of brown pelicans hoping to steal fish from their open gular pouches; a behaviour known as kleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft).

Bar-headed Goose

4 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Central Asian bar-headed goose. The bar-headed goose is a high-flier of the bird world. Bar-headed geese are migrants which undertake one of the most arduous journeys of any bird. They breed mainly in the remote lakes of the Tibetan Plateau, but overwinter on the plains of northern India. But to get there, they have to cross the World's highest mountain range, the Himalayas, a height of over 20,000 feet.

Australian Magpie

3 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the Australian magpie. These large pibald birds with pickaxe bills reminded early settlers of the more familiar European magpie, but in fact they are not crows at all. Australian magpies have melodious voices which can range over four octaves in a chorus of squeaks, yodels and whistles. Pairs or larger groups of magpies take part in a behaviour known as carolling, a harmony of rich fluting calls which marks their territories and helps to cement relationships between the birds.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Hoatzin

2 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the South American hoatzin. Moving clumsily through riverside trees the funky Mohican head crested hoatzin looks like it has been assembled by a committee. Hoatzin's eat large quantities of leaves and fruit, and to cope with this diet have a highly specialised digestive system more like that of cattle, which gives them an alternative name, 'stink-bird'.

Blue Bird of Paradise

1 september 2014 · 2 min

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Sir David Attenborough presents the blue bird of paradise. The crow sized blue birds of paradise provide a spectacular flash of blue in the Papua New Guinea rainforests yet it is the males dazzling courtship performance which grabs a female's attention. Tipping forward from his perch he hangs upside down fluffing out and shimmering his gauzy breast feathers. As if this weren't enough, as the female approaches, he increases the frequency of his calls to produce a hypnotic mechanical buzzing, more like the song of a giant cicada than any bird.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Pied Flycatcher

9 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents the story of the pied flycatcher. The pied flycatcher is the voice of western woods, as much a part of the scenery as lichen-covered branches, mossy boulders and tumbling streams. When they arrive here in spring from Africa the black and white males, which are slightly smaller than a house sparrow, take up territories in the woodland and sing their lilting arpeggios from the tree canopy.

Whimbrel

8 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents the story of the whimbrel. Whimbrels are sometimes known as 'seven whistlers' from the number of notes in their call and in parts of the English midlands these sounds in the darkness gave rise to a folk tale about the six birds of fate which flew around the heavens seeking the seventh. When they were all reunited, went the story, the world would end. Mercifully, it wasn't true but it was our ancestor's way of interpreting the mystery of nocturnal migration.

Reed Bunting

7 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents the story of the reed bunting. The reed bunting makes up for its lack of musicality with striking good looks. Male birds have jet black heads and a white moustache and look stunning on a spring day as they sit on shrubs or sway on reed stems, flicking their tales nervously and chanting a simple refrain.

Urban Dawn Chorus

6 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough introduces the final recording marking International Dawn Chorus day. The urban dawn chorus was recorded by Chris Watson in Whitechapel, London as part of a project to enable the children of the Royal London Children's Hospital to hear the wildlife sounds on their doorstep. Birds featured include the robin, blackbird, great tit and house sparrow.

Wetland Dawn Chorus

5 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents the third of four recordings marking Dawn Chorus Day: a dawn chorus from the marshes of North Warren in Suffolk. On clear moonlit nights the chorus can be an almost continuous chatter and includes reed and sedge warblers, reed bunting and even a bittern, with its booming, foghorn-like call.

Heather Moorland Dawn Chorus

2 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents the second of four recordings marking the dawn chorus, this time the heather moors of Allendale in Northumberland. Songs featured are that of the curlew, skylark, golden plover and redshank.

Woodland Dawn Chorus

1 mei 2014 · 2 min

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David Attenborough presents a dawn chorus recorded in Rutland Water. The outpouring of song is so dense that it is almost impossible to single out individual species but includes blackbirds, song thrushes, robins and newly-arrived migrants like garden warblers.

Stone Curlew

30 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the stone curlew. Stone curlews belong to a family known as 'thick-knees' but their country name of 'goggle-eyed plover' suits them better. Their huge staring yellow eyes serve them well at night when they're most active. By day, they lie up on sparse grassland or heath where their streaky brown-and-white plumage camouflages them superbly.

Fulmar

29 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the fulmar, a familiar cliff nesting seabird during the breeding season. For the rest of the year fulmar can be found over the cold subarctic northern oceans of the Atlantic and the Pacific. Coming to land only to breed, these tubenose birds despite resembling other seabirds, are closely related to petrels and albatrosses. Lees meer

Red-throated Diver

28 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the red-throated diver. The eerie wails of a red-throated diver were supposed to foretell rain. In Shetland the red-throated diver is called the "rain goose" but anyone who knows the island knows that rain is never far away. Like all divers, red-throats are handsome birds with sharp bills, perfect for catching fish. In summer they have a rusty throat patch and zebra-stripes on the back of their neck but in winter they're mainly pearly grey and white.

Goosander

25 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the goosander. Goosanders are handsome ducks and belong to a group known as 'sawbills' because their long slender bills are lined with backward pointing 'teeth', for gripping slippery fish. Underwater they're as agile as otters, chasing fish in raging currents or nosing for them under riverbanks.

Ruddy Duck

24 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the ruddy duck. Ruddy ducks are natives of North America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s several ruddy ducks escaped from the Wildfowl Trust's collection at Slimbridge and within 30 years they had become established breeding birds in the UK. Some even migrated to Spain where they mated with a very rare threatened relative, the white-headed duck. Many ornithologists believed that the resulting hybrids threatened to undermine years of conservation work in Spain, so after taking scientific advice, the UK government set out to eradicate the ruddy duck. This action has reduced our population to a handful so your best chance of hearing the courtship display is by visiting a wildfowl collection.

Capercaillie

23 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the capercaillie. The bizarre knife-grinding, cork-popping display of the male capercaillie is one of the strangest sounds produced by any bird. The name 'Capercaillie' is derived from the Gaelic for 'horse of the woods', owing to the cantering sound, which is the start of their extraordinary mating display. These are the largest grouse in the world and in the UK they live only in ancient Caledonian pine forests.

Stock Dove

22 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the stock dove. Perhaps 'stock pigeon' would be a better name, because they're like slightly smaller versions of the woodpigeon. Unlike their bigger relatives they have no white marks on their wings or neck and are more blue-grey in colour. When they fly, they look dumpier ...stockier you might say. Unlike woodpigeons, stock doves haven't taken to a life in town and they're mainly birds of wooded farmland.

Little Grebe

21 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the little grebe. Little grebes are our smallest grebes. They're dumpy birds with dark brown feathers and in the breeding season have a very obvious chestnut patch on their necks and cheeks. Little grebes are secretive birds, especially in the breeding season when they lurk in reeds and rushes or dive to avoid being seen.

Little Owl

18 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the little owl. Little owls really are little, about as long as a starling but much stockier with a short tail and rounded wings. If you disturb one it will bound off low over the ground before swinging up onto a telegraph pole or gatepost where it bobs up and down, glaring at you fiercely through large yellow and black eyes. Today, you can hear the yelps of the birds and their musical spring song across the fields and parks of much of England and Wales.

Hoopoe

17 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the hoopoe. The hoopoe, a salmon-coloured bird with a long curved bill and a black-tipped crest, which it can spread like a fan when excited, is so outrageously exotic that its call reminds us of the Mediterranean. Several hoopoes arrive in the UK each spring and autumn. These are usually birds which have overshot their migration routes and almost certainly won't find a mate here, though they do breed very occasionally.

Green Woodpecker

16 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the green woodpecker. The maniacal laughing call, or 'yaffle', of a green woodpecker was supposed to herald rain, hence its old country name of 'rain bird'. You can hear their yodelling calls in woods, parks, heaths and large gardens throughout most of the UK. Altough green woodpeckers do nest in trees they spend a lot of their time on the ground, probing lawns and meadows for their main food, ants and their pupae.

Meadow Pipit (Spring)

15 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the meadow pipit. No-one would give the meadow pipit any prizes in a beauty competition but this small streaky bird has its own charm, as it bustles through the turf with a jerky motion. If you're hiking across the moor it will rise ahead of you, dither in mid-air and then dart off, buffeted by the spring breeze.

Swallow (Spring)

14 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the swallow. A flash of blue across farmland or a stableyard and a burst of twittering can only mean one thing, the swallows are back after their long migration from South Africa. No matter how grey the April weather, the sight and sound of a swallow dispels the winter blues at a stroke. These agile migrants arrive as the insect population is beginning to increase, and they are a delight to watch as they hawk for flies in the spring sunshine.

Common Whitethroat

11 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the common whitethroat. Whitethroats are warblers which winter in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert and spend spring and summer in Europe. When they arrive in April the males establish a territory by singing that scratchy song from hedgerow perches or by launching themselves into the air.

Great Grey Shrike

10 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the great grey shrike. Great grey shrikes feed on small birds, which they can catch in flight. They also eat mice, voles and shrews and, as spring approaches, they'll include bees and larger beetles in their diet. Shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their habit of impaling their prey on thorns, just as a butcher hangs his meat on hooks.

Grasshopper Warbler

9 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the grasshopper warbler. The reeling song of the grasshopper warbler sounds more like an insect than a bird. Like the paying out of an angler's line from a reel, the grasshopper warbler's song spills out from the bush or bramble clump in which he sits. You'll hear it most often at dawn or dusk in overgrown scrubby or marshy areas.

Bittern

8 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the bittern. As the first shoots of spring appear in the reed-beds, you might hear the booming sound of a bittern. The bittern's boom is lower pitched than any other UK bird and sounds more like a distant foghorn than a bird. Today these birds are on the increase, thanks to the creation of large reed-beds.

Curlew (Spring)

7 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the curlew. The haunting song of the curlew instantly summons the spirit of wild places. By April, most curlews have left their winter refuge on estuaries and marshes and have returned to their territories on moorland or upland pastures. Wherever they breed you'll hear the male birds singing and displaying. It's often called the bubbling song.

Snipe

4 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the snipe. The snipe is an intricately patterned wader, not much bigger than a blackbird but with an enormously long bill. In the breeding season they fly high above their territories before dashing earthwards and then sweeping upwards again. Throughout this display you'll hear a bleating sound, known as 'drumming'. Find out how the sound is made in today's programme. Lees meer

Producer Sarah Blunt

Willow Warbler

3 april 2014 · 2 min

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Kate Humble presents the willow warbler. The first willow warblers return from Africa in late March. Willow warblers were once the commonest and most widespread summer migrant to the UK but in the last two decades numbers in the south and east of England have dropped. Fortunately in Scotland, Ireland and the west, numbers seem to be holding up.

Black Grouse

2 april 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Kate Humble presents the story of the black grouse. A black grouse lek is one of Nature's spectacles. Charged with testosterone, the males, known as 'black cocks', compete on 'jousting lawns' for the females or grey hens. Fanning their lyre-shaped tails and displaying a flurry of white undertail feathers, the males rush towards their rivals with harsh scouring sneezes and bubbling cries, known as 'roo-kooing'.