Tweet of the Day

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BBC Radio 4 LW

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: Sociable Weaver

Sociable Weaver

BBC Radio 4 - Tweet of the Day, Sociable Weaver

Sir David Attenborough presents the sociable weaver of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia.

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
 
Sir David Attenborough presents the sociable weaver of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia.  Travel through the dry margins of the Kalahari Desert and the telegraph poles stretching across the treeless plain could be wearing giant haystacks.  These colossal communal homes are actually a home to the sociable weaver.  These sparrow relatives build the largest nesting structure of any bird in the world.  A hundred pairs may breed in a nest weighing nearly one tonne, built on isolated trees or any suitable man made structure such as pylons.  Developed over generations these colonial nests provide a cooling structure during the searing heat of day and a warm refuge for night time roosts in this inhospitable landscape.  Other animals find a use for these structures, from nesting vultures using it as a safe platform, to snakes; who if they enter the nest, can have free rein to this weaver larder.

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