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We British are more
obsessed with birds

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than any other nation on Earth,

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and have been for much
of our history.

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From feeding ducks in the park
to listening for
the first cuckoo of spring.

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From inspiring some of
our best-loved poetry...

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..to filling our stomachs.

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The deep relationship between
the British and our birds

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reveals as much about us as it does
about the birds themselves.

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Birdsong, bird flight,
birds' residence around us

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cements our relationship with them.

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And there is no equal in our
landscape, and that's why birds are
so important to the British.

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And of all Britain's birds,
one particular group has risen

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to the very top of our affections -
those that have chosen to live
alongside us in our gardens.

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These have become the most familiar,

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the most loved and, in some cases,
the most hated of our birds.

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To an awful lot of people,
there is nothing but garden birds.

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The only birds they actually see
are in their garden.

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They perform a daily soap opera
outside our back window,
a soap opera whose characters

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reflect our own attitudes,
prejudices and emotions.

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And yet our relationship
with garden birds is
a surprisingly modern phenomenon.

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It's the result of some of the most
dramatic changes in British society
in the last 150 years.

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We are a nation of gardeners
who have become a nation
of garden-bird lovers.

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The British are obsessed
with garden birds as they're
obsessed with gardening.

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If you've ever listened to Gardeners'
Question Time on the radio,

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you know how high passions run.

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Our gardens are where we spend
a great deal of time.

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The birds in our gardens are
the birds that

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we interact with most in our lives,
and we follow them on a journey.

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I think that's very emotional
for some people, and it engenders

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a very deep and intimate
relationship with the natural world.

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No matter how small
your garden is, there will be
a bird that comes to it.

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They bring a breath of the natural
world, of the non-human world.

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They're the one things that do.

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They're magical in that they suddenly
take off and disappear, and you've
no idea where they've gone,

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and yet they come back again.

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Two out of three of us now feed
wild birds in our gardens,

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spending over £150 million a year
in the process.

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Yet a century ago, most of us
did not even have gardens.

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We took little interest in the
welfare of our feathered neighbours,

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and were more likely to eat
a blackbird than feed it.

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And the very concept of
garden birds was meaningless -
the term hadn't even been invented.

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"Garden birds" is
a cultural construct.

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These are simply birds that have
taken advantage of the new suburban
landscapes that we've created.

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These are birds of the woodland edge
that have moved into what
we've defined as garden areas.

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In little more than 100 years,
an extraordinary transformation has

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taken place in our relationship with
the birds that live alongside us.

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This domestic drama runs parallel
to the history and development of

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that very British phenomenon -
the modern suburban garden.

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But it's a story that begins
10,000 years ago,

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when one adaptable little bird
sought out our company
for the very first time.

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The house sparrow. It's small,
it's a chunky little bird.

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Wonderful chestnuts and browns.

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In a drab sort of way, it's
a very colourful bird, I think.

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But mostly what's good about
a sparrow is its behaviour.

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It's a sort of cheeky
Cockney sparrow.

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House sparrows have lived
alongside humans longer than
any other wild bird.

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The sparrow's engagement with it
is peculiarly intimate,

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and is rooted in
the development of agriculture.

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Agriculture is thought to have
originated in the fertile present

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in the Middle East,
and house-sparrow distribution
probably began

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and spread with agriculture
out across Europe

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as agriculture itself was passed
from community to community.

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And as it moved,

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they found a way to live beside us.

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Sparrows found nest sites
on our homes and food
in our fields and farmyards.

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But their dependence on us
meant that we viewed them
with suspicion from the outset.

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Sparrows very early on were
regarded as pests

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because they fed on the cereal crops
that the farmer had grown.

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In fact, the first evidence
for this in the UK was

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in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

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Her Parliament passed an act
which allowed the payment of
head money for sparrows.

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People would take the head of
each sparrow to the parish church,
where they'd be paid a small bounty.

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Since that time, farming
communities all over Britain
have waged war on sparrows.

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One of the interesting things about
sparrows is they've never really lost

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a shyness, a difficulty of approach.

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In the way that blue tits and
robins have lost their fear of us,
sparrows haven't,

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and I think that's to do with the
fact that, because they ate grain,

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they were harvested
and they were eaten.

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It's not all that easy to catch
such a clever bird,

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so our ancestors turned to Holland
for a practical solution.

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Dutch engineers who came over and
drained the Fens brought with them
what were known as sparrow pots.

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Sparrow pots were put up on farm
buildings, primarily to prevent
the sparrows nesting in the thatch

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and destroying the thatch, but also,
they were on a hook, they could be

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lifted off and the housewife could
put her hand in the bag and remove
either the sparrows or the eggs.

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These would very often go into
a pot in the kitchen.

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Sparrows were caught and eaten
in the countryside right up until
the middle of the 20th century.

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But some Britons had already begun
to take a very different view

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of this little bird,
as a result of the biggest
social change in British history.

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In the 19th century,
the balance of population between

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rural England and urban England
changed quite dramatically.

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So in the early 19th century,
the great majority of people lived
in the countryside.

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By 1900, only about one in five
people actually lived
in the countryside.

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So we effectively changed from
being a rural nation to being
an urban nation.

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Given how dependent sparrows were
on humans, it's not surprising that,

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as we moved into towns,
they were the one bird
that came along with us.

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One aspect of
the growing cities is that

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they're still terribly close
to the country.

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Not just physically,
but the fact that

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there's a lot of agricultural
animals actually in the city.

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You have horses everywhere,
you have stables,

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but also, in the parks,
like in St James's Park in London,
there are cows and there are sheep.

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So those birds which thrive on
dung and seeds and so on,
like the sparrow,

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could find the city
quite a happy home.

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Arguably, sparrows enjoyed
better living conditions

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in Victorian cities than did
much of the human population.

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The houses provide excellent nesting
opportunities, where they were safe.

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They couldn't be caught easily
by birds of prey and by cats.

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One of the reasons why

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the sparrows that lived in towns
did rather better was that

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man's attitude towards them
was quite different.

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They rather welcomed this bird
coming to live close to them.

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The townsfolk's new-found affection
for sparrows was

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a reaction to urbanisation,
a disorientating process that cut

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millions of Britons off from wild
nature, and at the same time made
them nostalgic for their rural past.

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The working classes and the poor
found themselves living in

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densely-packed housing,
with little, if any, outdoor space,
and no trees or greenery.

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But they found one way to reconnect
with the birds of the countryside -
not outside the home, but within it.

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I have this wonderful book from the
late 19th century called Home Pets.
It's full of the usual suspects,

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dogs, cats and birds. And
the kinds of birds that were kept

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at this time in the home weren't
just canaries and budgerigars.

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Everything from wheatears to
nightingales, goldfinches, linnets -

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a whole pantheon of British
bird species were being kept.

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And many of the people in the cities
kept caged birds for their song.

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The song of the bird was like
the music of the country.

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And you could close your eyes
and listen to the birds sing,

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and you could be transported back to
the countryside that you came from.

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It wasn't seen as cruel.

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In fact, people write about
particular species,
like goldfinches,

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"Happy in its cage - it sings more."

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These creep into
Victorian novels, too.

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A famous example can be found
in Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

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Now, my dears. Hope, joy,
youth, peace, rest, life.

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Oh, your time has come!

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One character, old Miss Flite, has
become embroiled in a long-running

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court case, but takes comfort in
her collection of caged birds.

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She has sparrows and she has linnets
and she has goldfinches,

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and her idea is to set them free
when the case is settled.

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Goodbye, my little ones.

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The wild bird for people in the city
becomes an emblem of the freedom
that they have lost.

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Not surprisingly, the most popular
caged birds were those with
the most attractive song.

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The nightingale was one of the most
popular caged birds, but because

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it was a very difficult bird
to keep in captivity,

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requiring live food -
worms and insect larvae and so on -

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and as a result of having

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very wet droppings,
it was a dirty bird to keep.

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So you had to go to a lot of trouble
both to feed it and keep it clean.

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In a way, the nightingale was
knocked off its perch by the canary.

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Whether exotic or British,
caged birds served another purpose
beyond their song.

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It was felt that encouraging children
to keep caged birds was very good
moral instruction, because if you had

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a pair of canaries in the cage and
they were breeding, you could see

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Mum and Dad feeding
the chicks simultaneously.

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They were like
a model human couple, in a way.

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Because the Victorians believed
birds paired for life,

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unlike many other creatures,
the Church had singled them out
for special attention.

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One clergyman was particularly
influential in shaping attitudes
to birds at this time.

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The Reverend Francis Orpen Morris
was typical of

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the clergy of his day
in that he regarded

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all of bird life as moral creatures
from which we had to learn.

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The hedge sparrow - or,
as it's now known, the dunnock -
was a favourite with Morris.

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The dunnock is a shy little bird,
isn't it?

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A reclusive little bird that,
in bird-table terms, is walking round

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the bottom of the bird table
and picking up the crumbs.

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And yet it's one of these birds
when you get a really good,
close look at it,

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it has very fine plumage and
a lovely pair of legs, and so on.
And a nice little, thin bill.

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Humble in its behaviour,
drab and sober in its dress,

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this was the perfect model for how
all his parishioners should behave.

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But then the Reverend Orpen Morris
didn't know the truth
about the dunnock, did he?

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Because the dunnock is an animal
that lives a scandalous...
A truly scandalous life.

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It enters into
every relationship possible.

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Polygamy, polygyny,
polyandry, promiscuity...

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You name it,
the dunnock does it, basically.

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This scandalous behaviour was only
revealed in the 1990s, and shown
in the BBC series The Life Of Birds.

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This is her mate Alpha,
singing lustily.

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There's a third bird around, Beta.

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# Ooh, you gotta give and take... #

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Dunnocks, instead of breeding
as a conventional pair,

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often breed as a trio,

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two males paired simultaneously
to one female.

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Alpha seldom lets her
out of her his sight,

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for she's not as faithful
as she might be.

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The female wants both males
to mate with her,

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because if both males mate with her,

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both of them
will help rear her chicks.

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But she has got her eye cocked.

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Beta is still in the hedge,
calling quietly to her.

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Usually, both males do mate.

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The way the males get round that
is by copulating with the female

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at an incredible rate,
as many as 100 copulations a day.

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Twirling her tail is an invitation

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and in a split second,
Beta mates with her.

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But now, out in the open,

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she's courting Alpha
with that same old tail-twirling.

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She exposes her cloaca and
the male that's about to copulate

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will peck at the female's cloaca.

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Basically he's watching
and waiting for her to eject sperm

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from the previous mating.

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As a droplet of sperm
comes out, he looks at it - OK -

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and then he copulates with her.

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The other thing that's remarkable
is those copulations of the dunnock

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are so fast,
it's about a tenth of a second.

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That must be almost the fastest
bird copulation there is.

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He basically flies over her.

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Morris saw them as very respectable
birds and the truth is, I'm afraid,

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the only moral you can draw from them
is that it's every man for himself.

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Morality wasn't the only aspect
of Victorian culture

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shaping our fledgling relationship
with the birdlife
in our towns and gardens.

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The rapidly-growing humane movement
also played an important role,

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by campaigning for compassionate
treatment of all God's creatures.

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At its centre, were children's
humane societies, such as

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the RSPCA's Bands of Mercy,
and the Dicky Bird Society,

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founded in 1876 by WE Adams.

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William Edwin Adams

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was editor of the
Newcastle Weekly Chronicle from 1864.

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He was also very politically
active here in Newcastle.

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Adams wrote a column
for children each week,
under the pseudonym of Uncle Toby.

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His objective was to encourage
humane behaviour towards animals.

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A key part of this behaviour
was feeding wild birds, and this was

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00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:45,360
included in the pledge taken by new
members of the Dicky Bird Society.

219
00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:55,160
"I hereby promise to be kind to
all living things, to protect
them to the utmost of my power,

220
00:17:55,160 --> 00:18:00,120
"to feed the birds in the winter time
and never to take or destroy a nest."

221
00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,480
Today, we take feeding birds
for granted, but in Victorian times

222
00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:09,560
it was quite unusual,
even in our towns and cities.

223
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:12,600
By encouraging children
to feed wild birds,

224
00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,160
the Dicky Bird Society
promoted a pastime that would forge

225
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:21,880
a lasting bond between the British
people and their garden birds.

226
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:26,000
And their recruits
came from some surprising places.

227
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:31,800
There is a letter
to the Dicky Bird Society
from children of Dover Workhouse,

228
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:33,320
which tells Uncle Toby

229
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,640
that they were collecting crumbs
from their table

230
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:38,800
to feed to the birds the next day.

231
00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:46,520
The Dicky Bird Society was
a highly-successful organisation,

232
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,320
attracting hundreds of thousands
of children throughout the country.

233
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:56,240
Together with other children's
organisations, they could boast
millions of members.

234
00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:00,000
It seems that as the 19th century
progressed, the number of people

235
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,200
actually feeding the birds
visibly increased.

236
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:08,520
There was a brand-new generation
of individuals

237
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,640
who were far more interested
in garden birds and their welfare.

238
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,200
But not everyone in Victorian
society thought it necessary,

239
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,960
or indeed desirable, to feed birds.

240
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:29,960
The Victorians were caught up
in a massive ethical dilemma
about feeding garden birds.

241
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:36,720
On the one hand, Victorian Society
and values were dominated
by the concept of self-help.

242
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:41,640
You had to look after yourself,
you couldn't depend on the state

243
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,480
for welfare and for support
in hard times.

244
00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:51,040
They extended this moral code
onto the birdlife, so therefore,
the Victorians believed that,

245
00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:54,960
by feeding the garden birds,
you somehow made them indolent,

246
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:59,080
lazy and dependent on welfare.

247
00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:03,960
These attitudes would be changed
by a series of very hard winters,

248
00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:08,000
which pushed birds
to the edge of starvation.

249
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:13,840
Victorian Britain was also dominated
by these emerging new sensibilities
for nature,

250
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:18,120
by this wave of humanitarianism
that developed, decade by decade.

251
00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:20,080
That was extremely powerful.

252
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,000
The Victorians couldn't bear
to see suffering.

253
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:29,440
So when hard winters kicked in like
1890 to 1891 and birds began to die

254
00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:35,400
in Victorian gardens,
there was then a battle for
control of the Victorian mind.

255
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,240
In the end, it was
the humanitarianism that won

256
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:43,000
and the Victorians fed the
garden birds in times of great peril.

257
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:47,320
A major winner from this change
in attitudes towards feeding birds

258
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:50,400
was the robin,
the nation's favourite bird.

259
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,240
There's a very rich folklore

260
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:58,240
associated with the robin
that goes way, way back.

261
00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,640
How did the robin
get its red breast?

262
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:02,400
The robin got its red breast

263
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:08,360
because it plucked a thorn from
the crown of thorns as Jesus
was on his way to Gethsemane,

264
00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:15,640
a drop of Jesus's blood
falls onto the bird,
and thereafter it has a red breast.

265
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,640
It's associated in a fairly
deep way with the New Testament.

266
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:23,800
Robins, by Shakespeare's time
and possibly long before then,

267
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,480
are associated
with charity and piety.

268
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:28,400
In the Victorian era,

269
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:35,080
the robin's position in our popular
culture became even more entrenched.

270
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:37,600
Robins appear on Christmas cards

271
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:42,440
through a rather strange
process of causation.

272
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:47,440
Robins gave their names to the
first postmen, who wore red tunics,

273
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,160
and were therefore called robins.

274
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:55,800
On some of the early Christmas
cards delivered by these postmen,
the robin was often pictured

275
00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,200
with a postcard in its mouth,
delivering the letter like a postman.

276
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:05,040
The robin gave its name to
the postman and the postman
gave its role to the robin.

277
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,640
Every year since, highly sentimental
images of robins have appeared

278
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:15,600
on our Christmas cards, an annual
renewal of our commitment to them.

279
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,880
By the early 20th century,
the foundations of today's
special relationship

280
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:24,760
with the birds living alongside us
had already been laid.

281
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:29,800
We didn't yet call them garden
birds, but a growing number of
people regarded these creatures

282
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:35,160
with a sentimentality
that would have been inconceivable
to their rural ancestors.

283
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:40,520
But this developing picture
of harmony was about to be
severely tested.

284
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:45,040
MUSIC: "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your
Old Kit-Bag, And Smile, Smile, Smile"
by George Henry Powell

285
00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:51,280
In August 1914, within days of the
outbreak of the First World War, the
Defence of the Realm Act was passed.

286
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:58,640
This draconian piece of legislation
outlawed many activities,
including the wastage of food.

287
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,120
Almost overnight,
feeding garden birds became illegal,

288
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:06,120
and people were even
prosecuted for doing so.

289
00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:09,400
"An elderly woman
was fined at Woking

290
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:11,320
"for giving bread to wild birds.

291
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:15,120
"She stated that she'd lost
her only son in Mesopotamia,

292
00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:19,040
"but all she used were the dirty
bottom crusts she couldn't eat.

293
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:23,800
"And that she'd fed the birds for 70
years and would continue to do so."

294
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:29,320
She was fined two guineas, the
equivalent of more than £100 today.

295
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,760
One familiar species
wasn't simply deprived of food,

296
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,440
but became one of the first
casualties of war on the Home Front.

297
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:47,240
Sparrows had long been persecuted
in the countryside
because they ate grain.

298
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:53,440
But now people in the suburbs became
concerned about the threat they
posed to the nation's food supply,

299
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,240
so they joined organisations
known as sparrow clubs.

300
00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:01,320
These may sound benevolent,
but they had a very sinister aim.

301
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,960
The sparrow club was a way
of dealing with this urban,

302
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,040
or suburban, vermin species,

303
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,440
and it would be
a cluster of working-class people

304
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,640
who would bring in their tallies
from the sparrows they'd killed

305
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,640
in their allotment
or in their garden, et cetera.

306
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:21,920
The one who killed
the greatest number of sparrows

307
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,480
would win
a silver cup for that year.

308
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:31,560
Sparrow clubs caught sparrows
in a number of different ways.

309
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,360
The most common
was to use large nets.

310
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:39,800
The captured birds were then either
killed and eaten or they were taken

311
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:46,880
to either gentlemen's clubs
or to pubs, where they were then
used as targets for trap shooting.

312
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:51,680
Hundreds of thousands
of sparrows were killed by
sparrow clubs during the war.

313
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:57,480
But because the culls took place
at the end of the breeding season,
when numbers were at their peak,

314
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:01,160
it actually had very little impact
on the population.

315
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,320
Ironically,
it was what we did in peace-time

316
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,120
that would bring about
a collapse in sparrow numbers.

317
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:15,560
Things dramatically changed
in the decade from 1920-1930.

318
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:19,360
The horse, as a means of transport
and pulling carts round

319
00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,040
and so on,
disappeared from the streets.

320
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,600
It was displaced
by the internal combustion engine.

321
00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:34,520
City sparrows had long depended
on spilt horse feed and undigested
seeds in horse droppings for food.

322
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:40,720
So the replacement of horses
with cars and buses
deprived them of a vital resource.

323
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:46,360
There's no doubt at all, it had
a dramatic effect on the number of
sparrows that occurred in the town.

324
00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:54,000
Without even trying, we'd reduced
the numbers of the sparrow,
the original garden bird, forever.

325
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,600
But for many other garden birds,
as for many householders,

326
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:03,520
the period between
the two world wars would see
the dawn of a golden age.

327
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,560
It's interesting
how recent, of course,
the garden bird phenomenon is.

328
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:11,400
If you read books about birds in
the 18th, 19th, early-20th century,

329
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:13,280
no-one talks about garden birds.

330
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,280
It goes with the growth of suburbia.

331
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,760
In just two decades,
from 1920 to 1939,

332
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,920
four million new homes
were built across Britain.

333
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:30,920
And for the first time in our
history, the vast majority of these
had proper gardens.

334
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:35,000
First of all there was
the actual planning of new suburbs,

335
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,440
with wider roads, with trees,
with these long gardens,

336
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,400
with vegetable gardens
and flowers and ponds and everything.

337
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:49,080
It's the continuation of
a passionate Victorian idea,

338
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,840
that we must live close to
nature in order to

339
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,240
have a good quality of life
and to be fully human.

340
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:06,320
The inter-war housing boom
was the biggest garden
creation scheme ever seen.

341
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:13,800
Collectively, these new gardens
provided a whole new, man-made
habitat for the birds to colonise.

342
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:21,360
The importance of gardens
and cities is classically revealed,
if you have an aerial photograph,

343
00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:25,600
where you rise up above and instead
of the gardens being separate,

344
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:30,680
discreet, small, unimportant
scraps of land around each house,

345
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:38,480
they form an aggregate
of semi-woodland habitats
that are actually very important

346
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:43,840
and often support
a substantial diversity of birds.

347
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:48,920
The creation of the modern suburban
garden, in the 1920s and 1930s,

348
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:53,920
set the stage
on which the relationship between
homeowners and garden birds

349
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,480
would play out over the rest
of the 20th century.

350
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,840
One bird would lead the way.

351
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,680
That quintessential garden bird,
the robin.

352
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:11,480
We have always loved robins
for their confiding behaviour.

353
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:16,000
Having a wild bird like a robin come
and alight on your hand to feed

354
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,200
really does help to form
a bond between us and them

355
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,600
and makes them incredibly popular.

356
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,840
And their fondness for earthworms

357
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:27,920
has engendered a very special
relationship with gardeners.

358
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:34,440
Anybody who's turning over soil,
from the gravedigger to the lady

359
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,920
digging her rose bed, robins'
cupboard love will triumph over them

360
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,320
and they'll tend your operations
with great care.

361
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:48,680
In the 1930s,
one man began scrutinising
the behaviour of the robin,

362
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,680
the first time anyone had done so.

363
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:56,680
David Lack was a schoolmaster
at Dartington College in Devon.

364
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:01,640
He carried out his robin research by
trapping and ringing his subjects,

365
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:07,160
so that he could tell
each bird apart and follow
their individual behaviour.

366
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:12,800
What he discovered pulled the rug
from under the cherished idea that
each of us has a particular robin

367
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:16,720
returning to our garden,
year after year.

368
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:21,800
I was absolutely knocked out by
the realisation that the robin we
had in the garden wasn't the same

369
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:25,760
robin we had last week
or a week before so...
Certainly not the year before.

370
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:34,640
The robin's traditional reputation
was further undermined by
the next part of Lack's research.

371
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:36,400
Unlike most birds,

372
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,120
which wear gaudy plumage
to attract a mate,

373
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,880
the robin's red breast
serves quite the opposite purpose.

374
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:49,400
It's used as war paint,
a threat to scare off a rival robin
entering his territory.

375
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:56,520
Now, David Lack did these famous
experiments were he put a stuffed
robin out into a robin's territory

376
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,000
and the owner came out
and just attacked it

377
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,640
and basically destroyed
the stuffed robin.

378
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:04,800
# If you ever step on my patch

379
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:09,760
# I'll bring you down
Bring you down... #

380
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,800
'Our pretty robin red breast
turns out to be a very
belligerent fellow.'

381
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:21,280
Lack published his findings in a
book, The Private Life Of The Robin.

382
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,800
This became
an unexpected bestseller,

383
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,560
and changed the way
we study birds forever.

384
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,960
The notion that you could take one
species and write a book
that was that thick,

385
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:37,480
in which you dealt with territory,
in which you dealt with song,

386
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,200
in which you dealt with
behavioural postures...

387
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,960
That was a revelation and as far
as I know, I may be wrong,

388
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:49,040
but that was the first time that
one particular bird was given

389
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,080
that kind of intensive treatment.

390
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:59,000
It's more than half a century since
David Lack unmasked the robin as
a short-lived, feisty little bird.

391
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,920
And yet the sentimental
Victorian image of it persists.

392
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:05,800
So there's this curious disconnect

393
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:10,320
between our notion of the
friendly robin, the bird we love,

394
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,520
the bird of our garden,
the bird on our Christmas cards

395
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,280
that is entwined with notions
of being British

396
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:19,920
and on the other hand,
there's the real robin.

397
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,840
By the time the book was published,
Britain was at war again.

398
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:36,360
And the British garden
was being redesigned
as part of the war effort.

399
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:41,400
As far as gardens were concerned,
the Ministry of Food realised that

400
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:47,480
there was an enormous, unused land
resource there in people's gardens.

401
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,480
And the high, top priority was

402
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,800
to produce as much food at home
as we possibly could.

403
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,720
So they started with
a massive advertising campaign.

404
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:06,200
The Dig For Victory campaign
instructed people to convert their
flowerbeds into vegetable patches

405
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,120
so that they could produce
their own food

406
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,360
to supplement
their meagre rations.

407
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:15,040
'You may not be lucky enough to own
an ideal kitchen garden like this,

408
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,320
'but the flower garden will grow
beetroot just as well as begonias.

409
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,400
'There may be room for vegetables
on top of your Anderson shelter

410
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:26,000
'or in the backyard,
or even on that flat bit of roof.'

411
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,840
Home-grown fruit and veg may
have livened up the monotonous

412
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:33,440
wartime diet but they also
proved attractive to birds.

413
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:39,240
And for the second time
in a generation, garden birds
discovered we were fickle friends.

414
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:43,320
'Surely, isn't an hour in the garden
better than an hour in the queue?'

415
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:49,240
The birds, of course,
did become the gardener's enemy

416
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,040
in a much stronger way
when your diet depended on

417
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:56,200
protecting your crops from the birds.

418
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:01,120
So I think people, they always have
had and this time they still had,

419
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:05,240
a sort of love-hate relationship with
the bird population of the garden.

420
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:10,240
So they would rig up all sorts of
arrangements, netting their crops.

421
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:19,720
The Ministry of Food also urged
people to either eat leftovers,
or recycle them.

422
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,480
So scraps, once given to the birds,
now ended up in communal pig bins.

423
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,600
It was a lean time for garden birds,

424
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:31,960
and even when the war came to
an end, rationing continued.

425
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,600
Britain now entered
a period of austerity.

426
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,440
But curiously,
our attitudes to gardens,

427
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:46,640
and our attitudes to garden birds,
began to change.

428
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:50,800
There was a slight reaction.

429
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:55,480
People really wanted gardens to be

430
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,720
places of colour
and scent and smell.

431
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,840
Gardening for pleasure
was back on the agenda

432
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,680
and part of the pleasure
was communing with wildlife.

433
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:18,200
This was reflected in 1945
by the publication of a little book

434
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:22,280
called Garden Birds,
written by Phyllis Barclay-Smith.

435
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:29,240
This was the first time in Britain
that the term "garden birds"
had appeared in print,

436
00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:33,280
and marked a turning point
in the way we thought about them.

437
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:38,440
She begins by saying that
because of industrialisation

438
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:43,560
and the growth of the town,
our garden birds are threatened.

439
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:47,640
And we must make habitats for them.

440
00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:49,560
She tells you what trees to plant,

441
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,760
where they like nesting most,
you know, hawthorn, holly...

442
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:59,640
Welcoming the birds back
and making the garden beautiful

443
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:01,480
and not fiercely productive

444
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:05,600
is a wonderful sort of reaction
to the ferocity of war.

445
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,120
The design of post-war housing
reinforced these trends,

446
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,920
by placing the kitchen
at the back of the house,

447
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,400
with a clear view of the garden.

448
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,760
The number of sinks I've seen
that actually look down the garden,

449
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,640
and you put objects of interest,
a sort of entertainment, out there.

450
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:35,520
One of them is the bird table so
that you look from the kitchen sink,

451
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,560
which is the epitome of drudgery,
at least if you're me,

452
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,160
into the garden which is
the epitome of freedom

453
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,640
and there are these birds
coming and going.

454
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:56,200
And outside, the nation's second
favourite bird, the blue tit,
was getting up to some novel antics.

455
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,680
'It's not only humans who
enjoy a drink of milk.

456
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,080
'People all over the country
are getting up in the mornings and

457
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:06,360
'finding their milk bottle tops torn
off and some of the milk missing.'

458
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,320
Actually it was the cream,
not the milk, that was missing.

459
00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:15,640
It's one of those things that folk
of venerable years such as myself

460
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:19,920
like to reminisce about, we were
around during the milk bottle years.

461
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:23,000
You would go out the front door

462
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:26,160
and you'd say, "Those dratted
blue tits have been at it again!"

463
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,880
I can see the little holes
in the milk bottle tops.

464
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,960
And I hadn't thought about that
for years.

465
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,440
In those days,
a milk bottle was put outside

466
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,120
by your friendly milkman who's
having an affair with your wife,

467
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:45,800
that was absolutely standard and...
they had these gold top things,

468
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:47,960
the sort of
silver paper thing on there

469
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,600
but blue tits and great tits
learned how to peck through them

470
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:53,520
because there was cream on top.

471
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:59,080
Because blue tits and great tits
are kind of inquisitive birds,

472
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:00,560
always poking around and

473
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:05,240
peeling off bits of bark, lifting up
leaves, looking for food items.

474
00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:08,920
Peeling off the lid of a milk bottle
is not that different, really.

475
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,760
The extraordinary thing,
and it is extraordinary,

476
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:18,840
was that that behaviour spread
right round the country.

477
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:22,960
This wasn't an example of evolution
in action, but simply a case

478
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,520
of individual birds watching
and learning from each other.

479
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:30,800
A process which scientists
call cultural transmission.

480
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,240
Birds are doing these things
all the time, it's just that

481
00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:38,600
with the milk bottles we could
see that cultural transmission.

482
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,840
The milk bottle thing was like
a little window into their world.

483
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:49,320
Even before the delivery of milk
to the doorstep went into decline,

484
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:54,200
the tits stopped pecking at the foil
tops because of our changing tastes.

485
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,640
As we became more health-conscious,
we switched to homogenised

486
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:02,600
and skimmed milk, thus removing the
cream from the top of the bottle.

487
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:11,040
Most people didn't begrudge
the tits their share of the cream,

488
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:16,760
perhaps because they were one
of the earliest birds to establish
themselves in suburbia.

489
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:22,720
But the post-war period
also saw the arrival of two
newcomers to the suburban scene.

490
00:38:22,720 --> 00:38:30,160
The very different welcomes they
received would challenge our ideas
of what it meant to be British.

491
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:38,520
The first newcomer, the collared
dove, arrived almost unnoticed.

492
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:41,160
I love all birds,
but the collared dove,

493
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,360
there's something essentially
very boring about it.

494
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,080
But behind this rather dull...

495
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:51,560
Somebody I know described its song
as a rather bored football fan.

496
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:56,600
"U-nit-ed." This kind of
three-note song, "U-nit-ed."

497
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,240
And there is something very dreary
about collared doves

498
00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:09,440
and they're beige in colour.

499
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:16,160
But they conceal an incredible
story of expansion.

500
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:20,440
Originally from south-west Asia,
the collared dove started,

501
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:26,600
inexplicably, to surge westwards
across Europe during the 1930s.

502
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,240
By the mid-1950s, it had managed
to cross the North Sea.

503
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:41,720
Probably one of the least glamorous
twitches I ever went on was to north
Norfolk, Sheringham I think it was,

504
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:47,600
in about 1954 or 55 to see a pair
of collared doves which are...

505
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,440
talk about ten-a-penny now!

506
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:53,760
And somebody must have noticed it
cos I think they'd been there

507
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:58,440
for a year and bred before they were
announced to the world, as it were.

508
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:09,440
Certainly they've adapted
to urban and suburban environments
in an incredibly positive way.

509
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:13,840
And it now must be one of
the ten most common birds
in the British garden.

510
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:21,720
Unlike the collared dove,
there was little chance
of our second newcomer,

511
00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:26,280
the ring-necked parakeet, slipping
into the back garden unnoticed.

512
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:33,880
Parakeets are interesting because
in the UK they shout foreignness.

513
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:45,800
They're bright green,
they have red beaks,
they have this loud, raucous call.

514
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:54,320
The arrival of parakeets,

515
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,280
initially in West London gardens,

516
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,360
quickly attracted
the attention of the media.

517
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:00,800
'It's thought that a pair

518
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,840
'of Indian parakeets escaped
from a local aviary in 1968

519
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,640
'and rapidly became acclimatised
to living rough, British-style.

520
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,760
'One of them visited the back garden
of Mrs Vera Tompkins

521
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,600
'who's always loved birds ever
since she was a young girl.'

522
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:19,680
'One came and sat on the top of
the pear tree in the next garden

523
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:23,400
'and I thought what a wonderful thing
it would be if he came after'

524
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:25,720
my birds' food.
And, of course, he did.

525
00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:29,240
Well then, in a day or two,
there were two.

526
00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:33,160
A day or two after that,
there were three, and then four.

527
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:36,560
And on Boxing Day, there were 22.

528
00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:48,080
Despite their tropical appearance,
parakeets are well adapted
to the British climate,

529
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:53,720
and have taken to the artificial
habitat of suburbia as well as
any of our other garden birds.

530
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,080
I have to say I like them.
They, of course, make a mess and

531
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:06,200
make a noise but, by golly,
they're lovely, aren't they?
They're absolutely beautiful.

532
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:10,520
I get up in the morning
and look out and there's
six or eight parakeets.

533
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,080
And it doesn't
half gladden the heart.

534
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:18,320
And yet the parakeet's acceptance
as a truly British bird
is not quite complete.

535
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:20,040
I'm one of the growing number

536
00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:24,000
of people that don't like parakeets,
I actually don't like them at all.

537
00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:30,400
It's probably because
they're big, they're green,
they've got long tails,

538
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:35,240
they just don't seem to fit
in this countryside to me.

539
00:42:35,240 --> 00:42:42,320
To start with, it was probably
a little touch of the exotic and
maybe that has darkened because

540
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:46,760
it's become more successful
and there are rumblings that these

541
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:51,800
hole-nesting birds might start
to have an effect on native species.

542
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:56,800
I think that we will see changes
in our response by naturalists

543
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:59,920
and you'll see changes
in response by the public.

544
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:02,280
But for now, I welcome them.

545
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,960
And I watch with fascination

546
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:09,880
how the bird will be treated
in the 21st century.

547
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:15,880
It's no accident that the ring-
necked parakeet and collared dove

548
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:20,920
chose to colonise our
suburban gardens rather than
the wider countryside.

549
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,640
For it was during
the late 20th century

550
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:28,960
that a revolution took place in the
way we attract birds to our gardens.

551
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:37,120
It was a revolution borne out of
our growing affluence as a nation,

552
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:41,080
and would come to define
our contemporary relationship
with garden birds.

553
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:43,720
And it was led by bird food.

554
00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:48,480
When I was a little boy, there
was a great British tradition of
trying to chop coconuts in half.

555
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:52,240
I vividly remember the kind of fiasco
of try to hit this thing

556
00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:54,840
and it was...you know.
And what you fed to birds

557
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,760
was coconuts if you were posh,
and breadcrumbs if you weren't,

558
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:00,480
kind of thing. That was it.

559
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:04,640
In the absence of
commercially available bird food,

560
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:09,400
the British had traditionally
fed garden birds on kitchen scraps.

561
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:12,080
As our enthusiasm for feeding grew,

562
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,120
those with time and money
went further.

563
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:19,480
When you're cooking for birds,
there's no need for any of this
continental sophistication.

564
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,560
And Indian curries are right out. No
spices, no salt incidentally either.

565
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:25,920
We'll do a bird pudding.

566
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:27,600
Now you need 12 ounces...

567
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,440
'People liked the idea of cookery,
cookery for birds'

568
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:34,480
so if you did a sort of a recipe

569
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,720
with fat of some kind and seeds,
you can make a kind of cake

570
00:44:37,720 --> 00:44:40,600
out of this and of course
that's very attractive to birds.

571
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:43,200
I'm going over here...

572
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:46,480
like so. And I've got one
in there already, of course,

573
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:49,120
to show you what it looks like
when it's finished.

574
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:51,160
At the end of the day,

575
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:55,840
you've got a baked cake really,
a flat cake.

576
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:02,280
But with increasing demands on our
time, fewer people were cooking for
themselves, let alone for the birds.

577
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,280
They turned
to a convenient alternative -

578
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:07,880
peanuts in a red net bag.

579
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:11,760
These were low-grade nuts
deemed unfit for human consumption.

580
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:15,640
Although they were
potentially nutritious for birds,

581
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,240
they had a drawback
nobody knew about.

582
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:24,120
The problem with peanuts used
to be that large proportions of them

583
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:28,320
coming into the bird food trade
were toxic

584
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,040
and they were contaminated
with aflatoxin,

585
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:33,240
which is a breakdown product
of a mould.

586
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:39,400
When birds ate the contaminated
peanuts, they were slowly poisoned.

587
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:43,960
This used to happen even
in my own garden because

588
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:48,280
I used to feed through till May and
then there would be no birds left.

589
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:52,880
And knowing where I got
the peanuts from at the time,
and to what I now know,

590
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:56,720
by that point, I'd managed to kill
off the green finch in the garden.

591
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:04,280
In the late 1970s, the bird food
industry began to innovate,

592
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:09,120
developing high quality products
designed to mimic the food eaten

593
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:11,000
by wild birds.

594
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:16,400
These increasingly sophisticated
products attracted more species
than ever to our gardens -

595
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:20,120
well over 100 different kinds.

596
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:34,720
They also proved irresistible
to bird-loving shoppers.

597
00:46:35,720 --> 00:46:40,920
It's quite striking to look at
the way in which the packaging,
the convenience of bird foods

598
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:44,520
kind of tracked the way in which
we've changed our own eating habits.

599
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:48,440
The whole rise and rise of the
prepared meals in Marks & Spencers

600
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,280
is echoed by being able
to buy the fat bar.

601
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:56,240
None of this melting down,
getting fat from the butcher and
melting it down and mixing it

602
00:46:56,240 --> 00:46:59,360
with peanuts and things,
it's there in a plastic package.

603
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:06,080
Today, feeding birds is yet
another way in which we express
ourselves as consumers.

604
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:12,600
I think a lot of people deep down
to feed birds for selfish reasons,

605
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:14,560
but in a good way. They want to say,

606
00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:16,920
"In my garden, I get this,
that and the other.

607
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:20,240
"I get bullfinches, I get...
I've got lots of chaffinches.

608
00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:23,120
"I've got a great garden for birds,
what have you got?"

609
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:28,920
There is that competitive edge which
is fine because it's benefiting the
birds, either way you look at it.

610
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:33,160
On top of that, it's bringing
nature closer to that person as well.

611
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:41,600
It is this deeper need to reconnect
with nature that underpins
our vast expenditure on bird food.

612
00:47:44,400 --> 00:47:48,080
Day after day,
people provide food for birds

613
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:51,360
and extraordinarily,
relationships of trust

614
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:56,040
are built up and it's our chance
to step outside the fate

615
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,360
of our species
which is a terrible one.

616
00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:02,520
I mean, who wants to be feared
by every other creature?

617
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:07,600
And that simple Franciscan act of
giving to birds makes us feel good

618
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:14,440
about life, that it redeems us
in some fundamental way.

619
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:21,400
Our urge to reconnect with nature
through the birds in our gardens
is nonetheless tempered by the fact

620
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:25,240
that the garden itself
is a semi-domesticated space.

621
00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:26,840
We may be in danger

622
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:30,240
of turning these birds
into little more than wild pets.

623
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:36,280
I think the wish to feed
garden birds

624
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,560
is part of a...

625
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:43,520
larger emotional wish to make
the birds somehow dependent on us.

626
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,840
To control the birds
as part of our environment.

627
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,880
To decorate the environment
with birds.

628
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:53,680
The desire for control
over wild nature

629
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:57,040
has always been
part and parcel of gardening.

630
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,440
We've always preferred some plants
at the expense of others,

631
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,960
and waged war
on those we consider to be weeds.

632
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:08,960
Now having invested time and money
bringing birds into this space,

633
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:12,120
we subconsciously want
to control them, too.

634
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:17,040
We want them to behave in ways
that conform to our own moral codes.

635
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:24,800
If you put a bird table
up in your garden,

636
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,880
you are creating
a sparrowhawk feeding station.

637
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:34,920
It's quite funny and distressing
to realise that when sparrowhawk zip
along the backs of suburban gardens,

638
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:40,520
they're just taking advantage
of these wonderful feeding stations
people have produced for them.

639
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:52,240
People get very upset about
sparrowhawks, for example, because

640
00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:55,360
they see their gardens as
an extension of their living space.

641
00:49:55,360 --> 00:50:00,960
So, when you look out of the window
and see a sparrowhawk pulling
a pigeon or blackbird to pieces

642
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:04,600
on your patio, it's kind of murder
on the living room floor.

643
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:07,760
This is why some birds become...

644
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:10,960
described as being mean,
evil or villainous.

645
00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:13,720
Because they become
part of the human world.

646
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:19,600
The arrival of uninvited predators
into our gardens throws into

647
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:24,320
sharp relief the emotional ties
we develop with the birds we feed.

648
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:30,400
If you've got used to YOUR blue tits,
and some great big predator

649
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:34,000
goes whisking through
and basically takes that away...

650
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,560
..I think, inside,
you're going, "Ah, that's mine!"

651
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,480
And you know you've lost something.

652
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:47,400
As a result, many of us
divide garden birds into two camps.

653
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:49,080
On one side, our friends.

654
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:51,960
And on the other, our enemies.

655
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:58,320
We project human values onto
the birds and then admire them
for them, or dislike them for them.

656
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:02,840
We like the robin because it's tame
and confiding. Or so it appears.

657
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,080
In fact,
it's the merest cupboard love.

658
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,160
We dislike magpies and starlings

659
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:10,800
because we think
they're noisy, rackety birds.

660
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:15,120
Vulgar, aggressive.
These are all human characteristics.

661
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:20,520
The melodrama that is the garden

662
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:25,840
and our encounter with it
can lead to the introduction

663
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,760
of moral ideas in nature,
which are very unhelpful.

664
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:32,080
The way that many people
view magpies,

665
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:37,040
as the arch-villain of the garden
soap opera, is a case in point.

666
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:42,560
Magpies are big, bold songbirds

667
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,080
with not much of a song,

668
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:48,400
but a great taste
in young songbirds of other species.

669
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:52,200
We really hate the fact
that they eat our blackbirds...

670
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:55,480
..and steal our tits
out of the bushes.

671
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:02,320
They're confident, they're cocky,
they're incredibly smart.

672
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:08,360
So, they will find a blackbird
or song thrush nest, and if the
parents mob them or chase them away,

673
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:12,000
they just bide their time and come
back at a more appropriate time.

674
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:21,160
And then, much to everybody's
horror, they butcher the offspring
on the lawn in front of you.

675
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:27,160
Branded as baby-killers,
there's a popular view

676
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:32,040
that magpies are responsible
for the recent decline in songbirds.

677
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:37,760
There's no scientific evidence
that magpies have been
responsible for the decrease

678
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:42,640
in garden birds and songbirds in
general that we see across Britain.

679
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,760
The BTO were involved
in a very detailed survey.

680
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:47,800
We were involved in that as well.

681
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,880
From a scientific point of view,
there is no evidence for that.

682
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:55,440
Magpies, I defend to the death.

683
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:58,600
I've had many fights
with people over magpies.

684
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:04,000
People talking about, "Oh, magpies,
sparrowhawks, they cause the decline
of all the songbirds."

685
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,440
Well, I think we're using magpies and
sparrowhawks as scapegoats, really.

686
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:15,280
Because we are the animals that
have caused the decline of songbirds
much more than any of those birds.

687
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,840
When viewing
the garden bird soap opera
through anthropomorphic spectacles,

688
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:23,520
we are often blind
to the real villains...

689
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:25,720
to our own role in the drama.

690
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:39,280
Our cats kill
55 million birds every year.

691
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:45,120
Although our relationship with
garden birds is thoroughly modern,

692
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:50,360
our attitudes to individual species
remain pretty traditional,

693
00:53:50,360 --> 00:53:54,040
resistant to change even in the face
of new scientific evidence.

694
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:59,000
We have our favourites,
our friends, and our enemies.

695
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:03,480
And in the garden bird family, there
has always been one poor relation -

696
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:08,560
the house sparrow. The recent
history of Britain's sparrows

697
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:13,160
reveals not only
the strength of our passion
for our feathered neighbours,

698
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:18,480
but also our inability as garden
owners to influence their fate.

699
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:21,880
As a birder myself,
I never used to really look at them.

700
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:24,960
And after a while, I realised
they weren't around any more.

701
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,160
I used to see them
all over the place.

702
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:33,280
Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens,
if you went to the cafe,

703
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:36,120
had a cup of tea, there'd be
a load of sparrows by your feet.

704
00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:38,240
And all of a sudden,
there were none there.

705
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:45,720
Every park had an old gentleman
who fed the sparrows.

706
00:54:45,720 --> 00:54:49,480
He always had his arms out,
a hat on, covered in sparrows.

707
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,040
Then you could do it, too.

708
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:56,960
I've got photographs of them
from that time. But you won't find
them now when you go out there.

709
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:09,160
In the early 1990s, people living
in Britain's towns and cities began

710
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:13,480
to notice that their local sparrows
were rapidly disappearing.

711
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:17,480
They wrote to their local newspapers,
contacted their local councillors,

712
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:20,240
even questions were asked
in the House of Commons.

713
00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:21,880
What is happening to sparrows?

714
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:26,480
Having been taken for granted
for so long,

715
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,720
the sparrow
was suddenly on our radar.

716
00:55:29,720 --> 00:55:35,360
A nation of bird-lovers was
demanding to know what was going on
with their cheeky little chappy.

717
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:36,960
In May 2000,

718
00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:41,640
a major national newspaper
launched a campaign to investigate.

719
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:43,840
They offered a prize of £5,000

720
00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:47,880
to the first person who wrote
a published paper,

721
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:52,680
accepted in a peer-reviewed journal,
that explained the urban decline.

722
00:55:54,200 --> 00:56:01,320
It turns out that sparrow chicks
are dying in the nest of starvation
due to a shortage of insect food.

723
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:05,480
And even those that fledge
are not surviving into maturity.

724
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:10,800
Ironically,
history may be repeating itself.

725
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:15,280
Having dealt a major blow
to sparrow populations in the 1930s,

726
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:20,720
motor vehicles
are once again being linked
to the current catastrophic decline.

727
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:27,400
And the one common cause I think
upon is atmospheric pollution.

728
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:31,120
Atmospheric pollution
coming from vehicles.

729
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:35,400
Although the Independent's prize
has not yet been awarded,

730
00:56:35,400 --> 00:56:39,600
it seems likely that factors
beyond the garden fence

731
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:43,040
are responsible
for the sparrow's demise.

732
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:45,320
Just like the miner's canary,

733
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:49,400
our sparrows may be
telling us something important.

734
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:54,000
Sparrows live in our urban habitat,
and if something is happening

735
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:57,080
to them,
it is high time we knew what it is.

736
00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:59,480
Because it may be
happening to us later on.

737
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:05,920
In August 2007,
our longest-standing garden bird,

738
00:57:05,920 --> 00:57:09,600
once so numerous
as to have been considered a pest,

739
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:12,960
was put on the Red List
of threatened species.

740
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:28,240
The creation of the modern British
garden gave us a new, suburban space

741
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:32,360
in which we forged an equally
modern relationship with the birds

742
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:34,320
that came to live alongside us.

743
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,800
Garden birds are creatures
of our making.

744
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:43,200
And by watching and feeding them,
we've come to know them intimately.

745
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:48,120
And we've drawn them deeper into
our domestic and emotional lives

746
00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:50,320
than any other group of birds.

747
00:57:57,680 --> 00:58:04,680
The story of garden birds is just
one aspect of the long, eventful
and often surprising relationship

748
00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:07,960
between the British
and our birdlife.

749
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:15,760
Over the next three programmes,
we'll explore this side
of our nation's history,

750
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:19,520
through our spectacular seabirds,

751
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:22,320
the birds
of the British countryside.

752
00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:29,400
And starting next time
with the story of how we came
to protect waterbirds,

753
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,640
and the wild and wonderful places
where they live.

754
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:56,960
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

755
00:58:56,960 --> 00:59:00,000
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk