Tweet Of The Day

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the story of the merlin. These diminutive falcons nest in deep heather on moorland, mainly in the north and west. In winter they also hunt over open country, hillsides and coastal marshes. The male merlin or jack is our smallest falcon, about the size of a mistle thrush.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the story of the Moorhen. Almost anywhere there's freshwater you might hear or see a moorhen. They're easy to identify from their red and yellow bill, red shield on the forehead and green-ish yellow legs with a red patch that looks like a garter.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the story of the Coot. The explosive high-pitched call of the coot is probably a sound most of us associate with our local park lakes. Coot are dumpy, charcoal-coloured birds related to moorhens, though unlike their cousins, they tend to spend more time on open water, often in large flocks in winter.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the story of the Lesser White-Fronted Goose. The lesser white-fronted goose is now a very rare bird in the UK, but the siting in Bristol of the BBC's Natural History Unit, owes much to this bird.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the story of the Mandarin Duck. A drake mandarin has orange whiskers, red bill, a broad creamy eye-stripe and an iridescent purple chest, set off by a pair of extraordinary curved orange wing feathers which stand up like a boat's sails. Today there are seven thousand birds living in the wild and the numbers are increasing.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Glossy Ibis. If, from a distance, you see what appears to be a stout-looking curlew with bronze-coloured highlights, it's probably a glossy ibis. Glossy ibis have always been rare visitors to the UK but in recent years, they've flown here much more regularly.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Black-Necked Grebe. In winter, the black-necked grebe is largely grey and white with a dark cap and eyes like rubies. You'll need to seek out Black-necked grebes in their favourite spots, which include large London reservoirs and shallow seas along the south coast.Producer: Sarah Pitt

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Greylag Goose. Greylags are the biggest and bulkiest of our wild grey geese with bright orange bills and pink legs. When they fly, you can see large pale grey panels on the wings. The greylag has been fully domesticated for around three thousand years.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Great White Egret. Great White Egrets are much bigger than little egrets, another recent colonist. These majestic birds first bred in Britain in 2012 at Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve in Somerset where two nests produced a total of five chicks, four of which fledged successfully: they bred again in 2013.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Bewick's Swan. This year is the 50th anniversary of Bewick Swan studies, begun by Sir Peter Scott, at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. Bewick Swans return here and to other UK sites each winter to escape the icy grip of the Arctic tundra and studies have identified individuals through their varying bill patterns.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Collared Dove. Although these attractive sandy doves grace our bird-tables or greet us at dawn almost wherever we live in the UK, their story is one of the most extraordinary of any British bird.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the story of the ring-necked Parakeet. These long-tailed emerald-green parakeets from Africa and Asia first appeared in the wild in the UK in 1969. Forty years on ring-necked parakeets are here to stay and their progress is being carefully monitored.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Great Tit. That metallic 'tea-cher, tea-cher' song of the great tit is instantly recognisable and you can hear it on mild days from mid-December onwards. It's the origin of the old country name, 'Saw-Sharpener'.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Mistle Thrush. Mistle thrushes are early singers and you'll often hear one singing from the top of a tall tree in windy winter weather. Because of this habit, an old name for the thrush is 'storm cock'.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the Crossbill. Crossbills are large finches that specialise in eating conifer seeds. To break into the pine or larch cones, they've evolved powerful bills with crossed tips which help the birds prise off the woody scales of each cone. Crossbills breed very early in the year and incubating birds sometimes have snow on their backs.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the magpie. Magpies have always had a rascally streetwise image. They featured in anti-theft campaigns on television in the 1980s, and long before that, their kleptomaniac tendencies were celebrated by Rossini in his opera, 'The Thieving Magpie'. Their pied plumage isn't just black and white, but gleams with iridescent greens, blues and purples.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the story of the raven. Ravens are one of the most widely distributed birds in the world and can survive Arctic winters and scorching deserts. In the UK, Ravens were once widespread, even in cities but persecution drove them back into the wilder parts of our islands. Now they're re-colonising the lowlands and are even turning up on the outskirts of London where, since Victorian times, the only ravens were the ones kept at the Tower.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the story of the song thrush and reads a passage from Thomas Hardy's poem, The Darkling Thrush. Written at the end of the 19th century, this poem is about the hope that birdsong can bring at the bleakest time of the year. This episode examines how often song thrushes sing in winter.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Tawny Owl. Tawny owls are our most urban owls, often living close to the centre of towns and cities, so long as there are hollow trees or old buildings in which they can nest.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the starling. Throughout autumn parties of starlings have been crossing the North Sea to join our resident birds and as winter's grip tightens they create one of Nature's best spectacles. These huge gatherings, sometimes a million or more strong, are called murmurations and they offer the birds safety in numbers.