Tweet of the Day

Latest Episodes:

Red-necked Nightjar Dec 04, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the nocturnal red-necked nightjar of the Spanish countryside. Like others in the family, red-necked nightjars are nocturnal birds which feed on large insects, snapping them up with huge bristle-lined mouths. A summer migrant, the red-necked nightjar breeds mainly in Spain, Portugal and North Africa. It is closely related to the common European nightjar, but it sounds very different. By day they hide on the ground among scrub where their cryptic patterns provide excellent camouflage. They're the colour of mottled bark and as you'd expect from their name, have a rusty-red collar. As the sun sets, they emerge from their hiding places to glide and turn on slender wings through scrub and pinewoods, occasionally warning rivals by clapping their wings together over their backs with a sound like a pistol-shot. Between bouts of moth-chasing, they settle on a pine branch and pour forth their repetitive, but atmospheric song.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Atlantic (Island) Canary Dec 03, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the Atlantic canary singing in the Tenerife treetops. The ancestor of our cage-bird canaries is the Island or Atlantic Canary, a finch that is native to the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands, which include Tenerife. The Canary Islands were named by early travellers "the islands of dogs from 'canis', the Latin for dogs, because of the many large dogs reputedly found there. And so the common and popular song-bird which is now a symbol of the islands became known as the canary. Unlike their domestic siblings, wild Island canaries are streaky, greenish yellow finches: males have golden- yellow foreheads, females a head of more subtle ash-grey tone. But it's the song, a pulsating series of vibrant whistles, trills and tinkling sounds; that has made the canary so popular. They were almost compulsory in Victorian and Edwardian parlours; a far cry from the sunny palm -fringed beaches of the Atlantic islands.

Greater Rhea Dec 02, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the greater rhea roaming the South American pampas. Greater rheas are the largest birds in South America and look like small brown ostriches. They're flightless, but can avoid danger by sprinting away on sturdy legs reaching speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour. Gauchos, the horsemen of the pampas, used to hunt them on horseback using a bolas; a well-aimed bolas would wrap around the rhea's legs or neck and bring it down in a tangle of feathers and limbs. In the breeding season males call loudly to proclaim territories, and to woo potential mates the male runs around erratically, spreading his wings and booming. He mates with several females who lay their eggs in the same nest. Then the females depart to mate with another male leaving the first male to incubate the clutch and rear the huge brood of chicks on his own.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater Dec 01, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the wedge-tailed shearwater of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Wedge-tailed shearwaters are large sepia brown seabirds with long wings and streamlined bodies. They feed mainly on fish and squid which they scoop from the surface or catch by diving. While the parents are careering over the open seas, their solitary chick squats alone in its island burrow. The return of the adults means a welcome feast for the chick. Its reward is a mouthful of warm and waxy stomach oil, the digested remains of the adults prey. It may sound revolting to us, but this oil is rich in energy and allows the chick to grow even bigger than its parents before losing weight again prior to its first flight, which happens a few weeks after the adult birds have abandoned it to its fate.

Madagascar Harrier-hawk Nov 28, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the Madagascan Harrier-hawk from Madagascar. Among the branches of a Madagascan forest, there's a flutter of wings and a flash of double-jointed feet. The Madagascan harrier-hawk is a striking bird, uniform grey above and finely barred beneath with black wing-tips and a white-banded black tail. There's a patch of sulphurous skin around its bill and eyes: and its long legs are also bright yellow. Those long legs help the harrier-hawk hunt for food that's beyond the reach of most other birds of prey. Using its wings for balance and twisting its flexibly jointed legs at seemingly impossible angles, the harrier-hawk inserts its talons into tiny holes, relying on its sense of touch to locate its prey. Madagascan Harrier-hawks do hunt more conventionally by gliding over the forest, seizing small birds, reptiles and mammals such as the Verreaux's sifaka.

Wild Turkey Nov 27, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the wild turkey of North American woodlands. We are so used to seeing mass-produced captive turkeys (the centrepiece for many a Thanksgiving meal in the United States and Canada) that the sight and sound of a displaying male wild turkey is a real surprise. With his tail fanned and red wattles a-quiver; he struts-his-stuff in a woodland clearing to win the favours of the less flamboyant hens. There are now around 7 million wild turkeys in the USA. But it wasn't always so. Wild turkeys were nearly wiped out in many states by over-shooting and woodland clearance. Their numbers fell from tens of millions in pre-Columbus days, to about thirty thousand by the last Century. Land which had been previously cleared for farming was allowed to return to woodland. Wild turkeys were released back into areas where they'd been wiped out. This along with hunting controls and behavioural research allowed their numbers to increase and their spectacular displays are once again a common sight in many areas of the USA.

Great Snipe Nov 26, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the superbly camouflaged great snipe of Eastern Europe. A thin drizzle of tinkling notes mingled with rhythmic tapping drifts across a Polish marsh in spring a sign that great male snipes are displaying. Great snipe are wading birds with short legs and very long two-toned bills, which they use to probe bogs and wet ground for worms. Across much of Europe having newly returned from its sub-Saharan wintering grounds a number of northern and eastern European marshes, set stage as breeding sites for the larger, great snipe. They court females at traditional lekking or displaying grounds where several males vie for attention. Perched on a small mound, males gather at sunset to fan their white outer tail feathers, puff out their chests and produce a medley of very un-wader-like calls. The females, looking for a mate, are attracted to the dominant males at the centre of the lek.

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Flightless Cormorant Nov 25, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the flightless cormorant adapted to its Galapagos world. The isolated Galapagos Islands are famous for their unique wildlife which has evolved to adapt to a landscape free of predators. This absence of predators has allowed the native cormorant to dispense with the need to fly, why waste energy when there's nothing to fly away from? This is the only flightless member of the cormorant family, which feeds on fish and for that reason it has developed stronger feet for swimming after its prey. They nest on the rocky coasts of Fernandina and Isabela islands and the population can dip below a thousand birds especially after hurricanes or collapses in local fish numbers. They recover quickly though, but are vulnerable to introduced dogs which nearly eliminated the cormorants on Isabela Island.

Red-billed Tropicbird Nov 24, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents a true global ocean going mariner, the red-billed tropicbird. These elegant birds are masters of the winds and tides. There are three species of tropicbirds and all of them nest on tropical islands, spending the rest of the year roaming the open ocean. All are instantly recognisable by their very long whippy central tail-feathers which can be longer than the rest of the bird. With scarlet beaks, black wing-tips and white-tail streamers from a distance they look all-white, but a closer view reveals a narrow black mask. Red-billed Tropicbirds nest on the ground and use their impossibly long tails in courtship displays, moving the feathers to register excitement or aggression. In flight they are graceful soarers and swoopers, and often call a trill chattering rattle in mid-air chases. This sound which resembles a bosun's (boatswain's) whistle, gave rise to their alternative name of 'Bosun Bird'.

Ivory Gull Nov 21, 2014

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world. Chris Packham presents the ivory gull from the northern polar seas. Ivory gulls breed on rocky outcrops and cliffs and has a near-circumpolar distribution, spending most of the year near the edge of the pack ice throughout Arctic Europe, Arctic Russia, Greenland and Canada. They regularly venture farther north than any other bird. The adults are brilliant white with black legs and black eyes; their only splash of colour is on the bill which is a pastel rainbow of blue, green, yellow and pink. At rest they look rather dove-like. Although their colour suggests purity, their tastes are definitely not. Ivory gulls are scavengers. Dead seals or whales will draw them from miles around and those birds which have turned up as rare winter visitors to the UK have often shown an uncanny ability to locate strandline corpses of porpoises, dolphins or seals. Diet aside these are entrancing gulls to watch as they loaf on icebergs or waft angelically over arctic seas.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected