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Wherever we are, there are birds. And wherever there are birds, there is birdsong. It's always a pleasure (and a relief) to hear sounds which prove the world's still spinning: whether it's the sighing of migrating redwings on a damp October night, the twitter of swallows fresh in from South Africa in April or the call of the cuckoo in May.
Based on the scripts of BBC Radio 4's beloved year-long series, and distilling two lifetimes' knowledge, insight and enthusiasm into these pages, Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss take you month by month through the year, and the changing lives of our favourite birds. From peregrines swapping sea-cliffs for skyscrapers to swifts spending almost their entire lives on the wing; from charms of goldfinches to murmurations of starlings; from ptarmigans thriving in the Highland snow to the bright green parakeets thronging London's parks; this book is packed full of extraordinary insights and memorable facts. Tweet of the Day is a book for everyone who loves Britain's birds.
Please note that this product does not include any audio recordings. However, a CD-box of the first season of the radio series was published in 2018.
Please note: the difference between the £13.50 and £10.99 paperback version is that the former is a trade paperback, whereas the latter is a mass-market paperback (also see this entry on Wikipedia for the difference between the two). The mass-market paperback only features black-and-white illustrations and has a page count of 440 pages.
Brett Westwood is an award-winning producer, presenter and naturalist. He is the BBC's expert on birds for Springwatch and regularly presents episodes of The Living World and Nature.
Stephen Moss is a TV presenter and best-selling author whose books include The Bumper Book of Nature.
"Delightfully varied and quirky, full of cultural and ornithological facts [...] A wonderful companion, this is an eye- and ear-opening book"
- The Times
"Tweet of the Day: great idea, great title. Why didn't I think of it?"
- Bill Oddie
"A pleasure to read"
- Mark Avery
"Lovely [...] a perfect introduction to British birdsong, informative and hugely enjoyable"
- Chris Packham
"I must admit, I missed all the daily 'tweets' which Radio 4 has been playing at six in the morning, nearly every morning, for the past year. But early birds who heard them will know that the basic idea was to produce a mini-portrait of a particular bird, complete with songs and calls, in 90 seconds. The scripts were skilfully written by Brett Westwood. Over the year they got through 250 British birds, each one introduced by a celeb, starting with David Attenborough. [...] These 90-second tweets have now been turned into a book, and what a beautiful book it is. All the illustrations – all 250 of them, including the jacket – are by Carry Akroyd in her distinctive style: half screen-print, half woodcut. [...] And now my only serious criticism. The contribution of artists to books like this is as great as that of the writers yet they are all too often relegated to the acknowledgements. Ironically, the jacket designed by Carry Akroyd mentions her name only as a tiny formal copyright on the back flap. She deserves, and should have been offered, full co-authorship. Pray look to it, John Murray."
- Peter Marren, British Wildlife 25(5), June 2014
