Tweet Of The Day

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Arctic Tern. Arctic terns are superlative birds. They're best known for seeing more daylight than any other bird as they migrate between the Antarctic seas, where they spend our winter, and their breeding grounds in northern Europe - a staggering round trip of over 70 thousand kilometres.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the quail. Quails are summer visitors in varying numbers to the UK, mainly from southern Europe and Africa - and sudden arrivals of migrating flocks in the Mediterranean countries were once more common than they are nowadays.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Manx Shearwater. Around 90% of the world's Manx Shearwaters breed around our coasts, most on remote islands such as Skomer, Skokholm and Rum. The steep-sided mountains of Rum hold the largest colony in the world, and the grassy mountainsides are riddled in places with their nest burrows.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Barn Owl. Barn owls are mainly nocturnal hunters. They are ghostly creatures, with rounded wings and a large head which acts as a reflector funnelling the slightest sound from their prey towards their large ear openings.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Goldfinch. With its bright yellow wing-flashes and face painted black, white and red, the goldfinch is one of our most colourful birds.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Razorbill. Smart as a dinner-jacketed waiter and with a deep blunt patterned bill, the razorbill is a striking bird - though its looks could be compensation for its voice.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Puffin. Far better-known for its comical looks than its calls, the puffin is a bird that that is recognised by many and has earned the nickname "sea-parrot" or "clown of the sea".

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Kittiwake. In June you can find kittiwakes breeding on sea-cliffs around the coast. You may well hear them before you see them, shouting their name from vertiginous cliffs.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Nightjar. Take a walk on a heath on a warm summer evening and you may hear the strange churring sound of the nightjar.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the female Cuckoo. The "cuckoo" call of the male is perhaps one of the most recognisable of all bird sounds. But the sound of "bathwater gurgling down a plughole" is much less familiar and is the call of the female looking for somewhere to lay her eggs.

David Attenborough presents the Sedge Warbler. Sedge warblers like tangled vegetation near water. They're summer visitors here but seek out similar habitats in Africa where they spend the winter. Before leaving our shores in autumn, they gorge on insects, often doubling their weight.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the European Storm Petrel. The storm petrels as a group are the smallest seabirds in the world and called "Jesus Christ birds" because they give the appearance they can walk on water as they flutter over the sea surface dangling their legs whilst looking for food.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Guillemot. Guillemots breed on cliff ledges and the chick is encouraged to make its first flight at the pointing of fledging by being encouraged to jump by its mother or father calling from the sea below.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Spotted Crake. If it weren't for its whiplash song, the spotted crake could win a prize as our least visible bird. Unlike its showy relatives the coot and the moorhen, this polka-dotted skulker is notoriously hard to find and only rarely betrays itself by singing.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Redshank. Redshanks are one of our commonest wading birds at home in freshwater marshes and on estuaries where you can easily recognise them from their combination of long scarlet legs, white rumps and wing-bars and greyish brown bodies.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Garganey. When you hear the male's peculiar call, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Garganey is a grasshopper rather than a duck. One of its other names is 'cricket teal' and the dry rattle is unlike any other British bird sound you'll hear.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents young Tawny Owls. Most of us know the "hoot" and "too-wit" of Tawny Owls but might be puzzled if we heard wheezing in the woods, the sound of the young.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Greenfinch. Often seen singing from the tops of garden trees looking large for a finch with a heavy bill, these are sadly a declining garden 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 Shag. Perhaps the least vocal of all British birds they hiss and belch to warn off interlopers getting too close to their nest. They are seabirds and their name comes from the shaggy crest on the top of their head.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Dartford Warbler. Dartford Warblers prefer Mediterranean wine-producing climates, which means ice and snow is bad news for them. The harsh winters of 1961 and 1962 reduced the population to just 11 pairs, but fortunately the numbers have since recovered.