Tweet of the Day

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738 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud

Roseate Tern

4 september 2013 · 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

Brett Westwood presents the Roseate Tern. One of the rarest of the UK's breeding seabirds, the Roseate Tern is exquisitely graceful. Roseate means flushed with pink and seen close this bird does have a faint pinkish wash on its chest in summer, but from a distance, it's the brilliant-white freshly-laundered look of its back and wings that distinguishes a Roseate Tern from its greyer relatives, the Common and Arctic Terns.
Swallow

3 september 2013 · 2 min
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Brett Westwood presents the swallow. You can see Swallows at this time of year gathering on telegraph wires, strung out like musical notes on a stave, before their long journey south to Africa. The female swallow often rears two broods of young each year but in sunny weather when there are plenty of flying insects, she may manage three broods.
Robin

2 september 2013 · 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

Brett Westwood presents the robin. The autumn song of the Robin is the soundtrack to shortening days, gathering mists and ripening fruit. Robins sing in spring but their autumn song is different. It may sound melancholy to us but for the Robin it has clear purpose - to defend the winter territories that male and female robins establish separately after they've moulted.
Barred Warbler

30 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the barred warbler. With its glaring yellow eyes, banded chest and long white-tipped tail, the Barred Warbler is always an exciting find. Look out for them in late summer and autumn, when young Barred Warblers turn up here regularly as they migrate south.
White-tailed Eagle

29 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the white-tailed eagle. These magnificent birds, sometimes called the sea eagle, are our largest breeding bird of prey and in flight have been described as looking like a "flying barn-door". The adults have white tail feathers, a bulky yellow bill and long parallel-sided wings: they really do deserve that barn door description.
Golden Eagle

28 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the golden eagle. Golden Eagles are magisterial birds. With a wingspan of over two metres their displays are dramatic affairs involving spectacular aerobatics. They can dive upon their quarry at speeds of more than 240 kilometres per hour, using their sharp talons to snatch up their prey.
Spotted Redshank

27 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the spotted redshank. Spotted Redshanks are elegant long-legged waders which don't breed in the UK but pass through in spring and autumn on journeys between their summer home in Scandinavia and their wintering grounds in southern Europe and Africa.
Common Gull

26 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the common gull. In spite of their name Common Gulls aren't as common or widespread as some of our other gulls. Most of the breeding colonies in the UK are in Scotland. In North America their alternative name is Mew gull because of their mewing cat-like cries.
Common Tern

23 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the common tern. The Common Tern is the most widespread of our breeding terns and is very graceful. It has long slender wings and a deeply forked tail with the outer feathers extended into long streamers. These features give the bird its other name, sea swallow, by which terns are often called.
Honey Buzzard

22 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the honey buzzard. The Honey Buzzard is more closely related to the Kite than it is to our common Buzzard. It gets its name for its fondness, not for honey, but for the grubs of bees and wasps. The bird locates their nests by watching where the insects go from a branch. It then digs out the honeycomb with its powerful feet and breaks into the cells.
White Stork

21 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the white stork. White Storks are annual visitors in small numbers to the UK, mainly in spring and summer when migrating birds overshoot their Continental nesting areas and wander around our countryside. They used to breed here, most famously documented on St Giles's cathedral in Edinburgh in 1415 and who knows, they may well breed here in the future.
Northern Wheatear

20 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the northern wheatear. With their black masks, white bellies, apricot chests and grey backs, male wheatears are colourful companions on a hill walk. The birds you see in autumn may have come from as far as Greenland or Arctic Canada. They pass through the British Isles and twice a year many of them travel over 11,000 kilometres between Africa and the Arctic. It's one of the longest regular journeys made by any perching bird.
Icterine Warbler

19 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the icterine warbler. Icterine Warblers are fluent mimics and include phrases of other species in their song. Their name, icterine, is derived from ikteros, the ancient Greek word for jaundice and describes the bird's spring plumage...yellowish beneath and olive brown on top.
Yellow Wagtail

16 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the yellow wagtail. Arriving in April, Yellow Wagtails are summer visitors to the UK, breeding mostly in the south and east. The Yellow Wagtail has several different races which all winter south of the Sahara and all look slightly different. The birds which breed in the UK are the yellowest of all.
Arctic Skua

15 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the arctic skua. Arctic Skuas are the pirates of the bird world and cash in on the efforts other seabirds make to find food. They are elegant birds with long angular wings, projecting central tail feathers and a hooked bill. The dashing flight of an Arctic Skua as it chases a hapless gull is always thrilling to watch.
Rock Pipit

14 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the rock pipit. The sight of a greyish bird no bigger than a sparrow, at home on the highest cliffs and feeding within reach of breaking waves can come as a surprise. In spring and early summer, the male Pipits become wonderful extroverts and perform to attract a female, during which they sing loudly to compete with the sea-wash.
Bullfinch

13 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the Bullfinch. The males have rose-pink breasts and black caps and are eye-catching whilst the females are a duller pinkish-grey but share the black cap. Exactly why they're called Bullfinches isn't clear - perhaps it's to do with their rather thickset appearance. 'Budfinch' would be a more accurate name as they are very fond of the buds of trees, especially fruit trees.
Common Redstart

12 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the common redstart. Redstarts are summer visitors from sub-Saharan Africa. The males are very handsome birds, robin-sized, but with a black mask, white forehead and an orange tail. John Buxton gave us a fascinating insight into their lives when, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he made a study of them.
Long-tailed Tit

9 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the long-tailed tit. They are sociable birds and family ties are vital. They even roost together at night, huddled in lines on a branch, and this behaviour saves lives in very cold winter weather. The nest of the Long-Tailed Tit is one of the most elaborate of any UK bird, a ball of interwoven moss, lichen, animal hair, spider's webs and feathers.
Oystercatcher

8 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachen presents the oystercatcher. These black and white waders used to be called sea-pies because of their pied plumage, which contrasts sharply with their pink legs and long red bill. Oystercatchers don't often eat oysters. Instead they use their powerful bill to break into mussels on rocks or probe for cockles in the mud of estuaries.
Great Black-backed Gull

7 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Michaela Strachan presents the great black-backed gull. These gulls are the largest in the world. They are quite common around our coasts and you can see them in summer perched on a crag watching for any signs of danger or potential prey. Although they are scavengers Great Black-Backs will attack and kill other birds.
Ringed Plover

6 augustus 2013 · 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

Michaela Strachen presents the ringed plover. Camouflage is crucial to ringed plovers because they lay their eggs among the pebbles and shingle of the open beach. To protect her young from a predator, the Ringed Plover will stumble away from the nest while dragging one wing on the ground.
Wood Pigeon

5 augustus 2013 · 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

Michaela Strachan presents the wood pigeon. One of our most widespread birds, you can hear this song all year round; just about anywhere. The young are called squabs and along with seeds and green foliage, Wood Pigeons feed their chicks with "pigeon milk", a secretion from their stomach lining.
House Sparrow

2 augustus 2013 · 2 min
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Michaela Strachan presents the house sparrow. These birds are more commonly found living alongside us than any other British bird. Perhaps the most enterprising birds were the House Sparrows which bred below ground in a working mine at Frickley Colliery in Yorkshire.
Stonechat

1 augustus 2013 · 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

Michaela Strachan presents the Stonechat. Stonechats are well named: their call sounds just like two pebbles being struck together. The males are striking birds with a black head, white collar and orange chest and are about the size of a plump robin.
Red-backed Shrike

31 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the red-backed shrike. Lees meer

Red-backed shrikes were once regular summer visitors to scrubby hillsides and heathery commons and are handsome birds; males have a grey head, reddish-brown back, black and white tail and a black bandit-mask. They were known as butcher birds from their habit of storing prey by impaling it on a thorn or a barbed-wire fence. Now they're one of our rarest breeding birds.
Little Tern

30 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the little tern. Lees meer

Little terns are our smallest terns. You can pick them out from our other terns by their smaller size, white forehead and yellow bill with a black tip. They look flimsy and delicate but move too close to one of their colonies, and you'll unleash a tirade of grating shrieks as they try to intimidate you out of their territory.
Kestrel

29 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the kestrel. Lees meer

The kestrel is widely distributed throughout the UK and, when hovering, is our most recognisable bird of prey. Their chestnut back and wings, and habit of holding themselves stationary in mid-air, are a unique combination; small wonder that an old name for kestrels is windhover.

Produced by Brett Westwood and Sarah Blunt
Whinchat

26 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the whinchat. Lees meer

Whinchats are perky little summer visitors, about the size of a robin and migrate to the UK in spring from their wintering grounds south of the Sahara. They're birds of open country, preferring moors, heaths and rough ground and are often found where gorse bushes grow, which explains their common name, whin being a Scottish word for gorse.
Black-browed Albatross

25 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the black-browed albatross. Lees meer

Although they're residents of the Antarctic seas , black-browed albatrosses have turned up in the UK many times. For a while, Albert-or Albert Ross as he was christened by birdwatchers- was one of the most well-known birds in the British Isles. He was first spotted in the gannet colony on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth in 1967. Sadly he failed to find a mate among the masses of gannets there.
Red-necked Phalarope

24 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the red-necked phalarope. Lees meer

Red-necked phalaropes are among our rarest waders, small and colourful with needle-like bills and they breed in very limited numbers on the edges of our islands. There are probably only around 20 pairs of these birds in summer in the Outer Hebrides or Shetlands.
Lesser Black-backed Gull

23 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the lesser black-backed gull. Lees meer

These smart gulls are charcoal grey on top and white beneath. Like herring gulls, their close relatives LBBs have moved into urban areas and now breed on flat roofs in the centre of cities. It seems almost any flat surface will do. In just three hours, one bird in Gloucester built a nest on a car roof and laid an egg in.
Dotterel

22 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the dotterel. Lees meer

Dotterels are waders, rather like small plovers with a broad white-eye stripe. In the UK, they're almost confined as breeding birds to the Scottish Highlands. They don't tend to fly away when approached which led our ancestors to believe that they are stupid. "Dotterel" derives from the same source as "dotard" and this tameness meant that the birds were easy prey for Victorian collectors.
Sparrowhawk

19 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the sparrowhawk. Lees meer

A garden visit from a sparrowhawk can be an exciting affair. They're smash-and grab raiders, using bushes, hedgerows and fences as cover to take their victims by surprise. Males are blue-grey above, with a striking rusty-orange chest and are smaller than the brown females - this allows the pair to take a wide range of prey.
Spotted flycatcher

18 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the spotted flycatcher. Lees meer

Spotted flycatchers may be rather plain-looking but they're full of character and they often nest in our gardens. The first sign that one's about may be a pale shape darting out from a tree to pluck a fly in mid-air with an audible snap of its bill.
Cirl Bunting

17 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the cirl bunting. Lees meer

Cirl buntings are related to yellowhammers and look rather like them, but the male cirl bunting has a black throat and a greenish chest-band.

Their rattling song may evoke memories of warm dry hillsides in France or Italy. Cirl buntings are Mediterranean birds more at home in olive groves than chilly English hedgerows. Here at the north-western edge of their range, most of our cirl buntings live near the coast in south Devon where they breed in hedgerows on farmland .
Kingfisher

16 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the kingfisher. Lees meer

The Ancient Greeks knew the kingfisher as Halcyon and believed that the female built her nest on the waves, calming the seas while she brooded her eggs: hence the expression Halcyon days, which we use now for periods of tranquillity.

Kingfishers can bring in over 100 fish a day to their large broods and the resulting collection of bones and offal produces a stench that doesn't match the bird's attractive appearance.
Herring Gull

15 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the herring gull. Lees meer

Herring gulls now regularly breed inland and that's because of the way we deal with our refuse. Since the Clean Air Acts of 1956 banned the burning of refuse at rubbish tips, the birds have been able to cash in on the food that we reject: And our throwaway society has provided them a varied menu. We've also built reservoirs around our towns on which they roost, and we've provided them with flat roofs which make perfect nest sites.
Tree Pipit

12 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the tree pipit. Lees meer

Tree pipits are small brown birds without any bright colours or distinctive features; but you can identify one from a distance when it is singing, because it has a very obvious display flight. The male bird sings from April to the end of July, launching himself from a treetop perch, then parachutes downwards like a paper dart.
Coal Tit

11 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the coal tit. Lees meer

Coal tits often visit our bird-tables but don't hang around. They dart off with food to hide it in crevices and crannies. What the bird is doing is hiding or cache-ing food to be eaten later. Coal tits are smaller than their relatives and have lower fat reserves, so they store food to compensate for any future shortages. In the winter they store seeds and in summer they will hide small insects.
House Martin

10 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the house martin. Lees meer

House martins are often confused with swallows , but look shorter-tailed and lack the rusty throats. They're compact birds which build their with pellets of mud under our eaves and although they're so familiar to us in summer, we still can't be certain where they spend the winter. Ornithologists believe that they may spend our winter catching insects high over African rainforests.
Corncrake

9 juli 2013 · 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. Steve Backshall presents the corncrake. Lees meer

The rasping repeated call of the corncrake was once a familiar sound of hay meadows throughout the UK. However these birds were no match for mechanical mowers which destroyed their nests and they're now mainly found in the north and west where conservation efforts are bringing them back to lush meadows and crofts.
Osprey

8 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall presents the osprey. Ospreys are fish-eaters and the sight of one of these majestic birds plunging feet first to catch its prey is a sight to cherish. The return of the ospreys is one of the great UK conservation stories. After extinction through egg-collecting and shooting in the 19th and early 20th centuries, birds returned in the 1950s and have responded well to protection.
Common Buzzard

5 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall presents the common buzzard. Common buzzards are stocky birds of prey which often soar on upturned wings. In Scotland they're sometimes called the tourists' eagle because of many golden eagles claimed by hopeful visitors. Common buzzards are increasing their range and numbers and range in the UK and their soaring flight over their territories is now a regular sight nearly everywhere.
Sandwich Tern

4 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall presents the sandwich tern. Sandwich terns are the UK's largest breeding terns and have shaggy black crests and a black bill with a yellow tip. They live in colonies on shingle or sandy beaches and were first described from birds seen in Sandwich in the 1780s by William Boys, a Kentish surgeon.
Turtle Dove

3 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall presents the turtle dove. The soft purring song of the turtle Doves are mentioned in the Song of Solomon in the Bible: " The voice of the turtle is heard in our land". They are migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and are now a treat to see here in the UK where they breed in farmland and scrub where they can find weed seeds for their growing young.
Yellowhammer

2 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall presents the yellowhammer. The yellowhammer is a member of the bunting family and its name comes from "ammer" the German for bunting. It's one of the few British birds to have its song transcribed into words and seems to be saying ..a little bit of bread and no cheese".
Corn Bunting

1 juli 2013 · 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

Steve Backshall begins May with the corn bunting. Corn buntings may be plain-looking birds which sing their scratchy songs from cornfields, but their private lives are a colourful affair and a single male bird may have up to 18 partners.
Reed Warbler

28 juni 2013 · 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

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Reed Warbler. Reed warblers are summer visitors from Africa, one of the few long-distance migrants that are faring well in northern Europe - possibly because we're creating more gravel pits and conservation reedbeds.
Marsh Warbler

27 juni 2013 · 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

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Marsh Warbler. Marsh warblers are astonishing mimics and when you hear one singing you could be forgiven for thinking that there's a flock of different species in the bush.