Tweet Of The Day

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the knot. Knot are dumpy waders which breed in the high Arctic but winter in hundreds of thousands on our estuaries and salt-marshes. Crammed together shoulder to shoulder at the water's edge, you can see how they got their scientific name Calidris canutus...a tribute to King Canute who discovered, despite his best attempts, that he didn't have the power to turn back the tides.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the red kite. After centuries of persecution red kites were almost wiped out but in 1989 a project to restore the red kite back into the wild began. Since then kite numbers have soared, so that now these birds are foraging even around the outer suburbs of London.

David Attenborough presents the robin. Christmas cards became popular around 1860 and robins often featured, carrying letters in their beaks or lifting door-knockers and were often referred to as the 'little postmen'. Until 1861, postmen wore red coats and were nick-named redbreasts or Robins, so the association between a familiar winter bird and the person who brought Christmas greetings was irresistible.Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the dipper. On a cold winter's day when few birds are singing, the bright rambling song of a dipper by a rushing stream is always a surprise. Dippers sing in winter because that's when the males begin marking out their stretch of water, they're early breeders.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the lesser redpoll. You can spot Lesser Redpolls hanging like tiny acrobatic parrots among the slender twigs, while a rain of papery seeds falls down around them. They're lively birds which allow you to get fairly close, and then sometimes flocks will explode en masse for no apparent reason and fly around calling.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the purple sandpiper. On winter beaches, where waves break on seaweed-covered rocks, purple sandpipers make their home. 'Purple' refers to the hint of a purple sheen on their back feathers. They are well camouflaged among the seaweed covered rocks and being relatively quiet, compared to many waders, are easy to overlook.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the snow bunting. The ornithologist and author, Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, described the snow bunting as 'possibly the most romantic and elusive bird in the British Isles'. When you disturb a flock of what seem to be brownish birds, they explode into a blizzard of white-winged buntings, calling softly as they swirl around the winter strandline.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the sanderling. Twinkling along the tideline, so fast that their legs are a blur, sanderlings are small waders. It's the speed with which they dodge incoming waves that catches your attention as they run after the retreating waters and frantically probe the sand.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the ptarmigan. Few birds are tough enough to brave winter on the highest of Scottish mountains but Ptarmigan are well adapted to extreme conditions. They're the only British bird that turns white in winter and Ptarmigan have feathers that cover their toes, feet and nostrils to minimise heat loss.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.David Attenborough presents the shelduck. Shelducks are birds of open mud and sand which they sift for water snails and other tiny creatures. They will breed inland and they nest in holes. Disused rabbit burrows are favourite places and they'll also settle down in tree cavities, sheds, out-buildings and even haystacks.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Chris Packham presents the brent goose. Brent Geese are our smallest wild geese and are unmistakable with their rather funereal colours, blackish heads and grey backs with a wisp of white on the neck. Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland is a very important wintering site for Brent Geese.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the Mute Swan. Mute Swans are deeply embedded in our culture. They are unique among British birds because the Crown retains the rights of ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water. Since the 15th century, an annual census of mute swans has been held annually on the River Thames.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the water rail. Water rails are very secretive and live in thick vegetation in marshes and fens where the birds breed. The adult birds look rather like small moorhens but with chestnut on top, a blue-grey face and a zebra-stripe patch on their sides. They have long blood-red bills used for probing for insects.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the gadwall. Gadwall were rare ducks until a few decades ago, now though, gadwall are spreading fast in the UK. Gadwall can be sneaky thieves, exhibiting what scientists call klepto-parasitic tendencies. They often wait for birds such as coot and mute swans to bring up aquatic vegetation beyond their reach and seize it before their victims can eat it themselves.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Chris Packham presents the long-tailed duck. The musical call of the long-tailed duck gives it the Scottish name of 'calloo', or 'coal- and-candlelight'. In the UK you're more likely to see them in Scotland and northern England where they seek out shellfish, diving up to 60 metres to retrieve them.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the teal. Teal are our smallest duck and the drakes are striking birds, heads burnished with chestnut surrounding a green mask fringed with yellow. They whistle softly in a piping chorus which sounds, from a distance, like the chime of tiny bells. That sound of the male's call is probably the origin of the bird's name, teal.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Chris Packham presents the fieldfare. Fieldfares are thrushes, and very handsome ones. They have slate-grey heads, dark chestnut backs and black tails and their under parts are patterned with arrows. Although birds will stick around if there's plenty of food available, fieldfares are great wanderers and are quick to move out in freezing conditions.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songsChris Packham presents the blackbird. Resident blackbirds are on the alert just now because their territories are under siege. Large numbers of Continental blackbirds pour in to the UK each winter to escape even colder conditions elsewhere.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Chris Packham presents the barn owl. As soft-plumaged birds which weigh very little Barn Owls avoid hunting in strong winds or heavy rain. Snow is a problem too because it allows voles and mice to tunnel beneath its blanket, out of the owls' reach. But in spite of seasonal perils, barn owls are a welcome sight over grassy fields and verges in many parts of the UK.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Chris Packham presents the whooper swan. The elegance and beauty of wild swans has inspired writers and musicians across the centuries – the most familiar perhaps being Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, which may well have been inspired by the Whooper swan.