Tweet of the Day

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Factual: Science & Nature

Discover birds through their songs and calls. 265 programmes of 90 seconds, over a year

Discover birds through their songs and calls. Each Tweet of the Day begins with a call or song, followed by a story of fascinating ornithology inspired by the sound.

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Tweet of the Day: Red-necked Nightjar

Red-necked Nightjar

BBC Radio 4 - Tweet of the Day, Red-necked Nightjar

Chris Packham presents the nocturnal red-necked nightjar of the Spanish countryside.

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

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