0:00:02 > 0:00:07We British are more obsessed with birds
0:00:07 > 0:00:08than any other nation on Earth,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11and have been for much of our history.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18From feeding ducks in the park to listening for the first cuckoo of spring.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22From inspiring some of our best-loved poetry...
0:00:24 > 0:00:26..to filling our stomachs.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31The deep relationship between the British and our birds
0:00:31 > 0:00:36reveals as much about us as it does about the birds themselves.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41Birdsong, bird flight, birds' residence around us
0:00:41 > 0:00:45cements our relationship with them.
0:00:45 > 0:00:52And there is no equal in our landscape, and that's why birds are so important to the British.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10And of all Britain's birds, one particular group has risen
0:01:10 > 0:01:18to the very top of our affections - those that have chosen to live alongside us in our gardens.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22These have become the most familiar,
0:01:22 > 0:01:28the most loved and, in some cases, the most hated of our birds.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34To an awful lot of people, there is nothing but garden birds.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37The only birds they actually see are in their garden.
0:01:40 > 0:01:47They perform a daily soap opera outside our back window, a soap opera whose characters
0:01:47 > 0:01:51reflect our own attitudes, prejudices and emotions.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56And yet our relationship with garden birds is a surprisingly modern phenomenon.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03It's the result of some of the most dramatic changes in British society in the last 150 years.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21We are a nation of gardeners who have become a nation of garden-bird lovers.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25The British are obsessed with garden birds as they're obsessed with gardening.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29If you've ever listened to Gardeners' Question Time on the radio,
0:02:29 > 0:02:30you know how high passions run.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Our gardens are where we spend a great deal of time.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38The birds in our gardens are the birds that
0:02:38 > 0:02:42we interact with most in our lives, and we follow them on a journey.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47I think that's very emotional for some people, and it engenders
0:02:47 > 0:02:51a very deep and intimate relationship with the natural world.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59No matter how small your garden is, there will be a bird that comes to it.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04They bring a breath of the natural world, of the non-human world.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06They're the one things that do.
0:03:06 > 0:03:12They're magical in that they suddenly take off and disappear, and you've no idea where they've gone,
0:03:12 > 0:03:13and yet they come back again.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21Two out of three of us now feed wild birds in our gardens,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25spending over £150 million a year in the process.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32Yet a century ago, most of us did not even have gardens.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36We took little interest in the welfare of our feathered neighbours,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and were more likely to eat a blackbird than feed it.
0:03:43 > 0:03:49And the very concept of garden birds was meaningless - the term hadn't even been invented.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53"Garden birds" is a cultural construct.
0:03:53 > 0:04:01These are simply birds that have taken advantage of the new suburban landscapes that we've created.
0:04:01 > 0:04:08These are birds of the woodland edge that have moved into what we've defined as garden areas.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13In little more than 100 years, an extraordinary transformation has
0:04:13 > 0:04:18taken place in our relationship with the birds that live alongside us.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22This domestic drama runs parallel to the history and development of
0:04:22 > 0:04:27that very British phenomenon - the modern suburban garden.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36But it's a story that begins 10,000 years ago,
0:04:36 > 0:04:42when one adaptable little bird sought out our company for the very first time.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48- The house sparrow.- It's small, it's a chunky little bird.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Wonderful chestnuts and browns.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55In a drab sort of way, it's a very colourful bird, I think.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58But mostly what's good about a sparrow is its behaviour.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02It's a sort of cheeky Cockney sparrow.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08House sparrows have lived alongside humans longer than any other wild bird.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12The sparrow's engagement with it is peculiarly intimate,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and is rooted in the development of agriculture.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Agriculture is thought to have originated in the fertile present
0:05:19 > 0:05:23in the Middle East, and house-sparrow distribution probably began
0:05:23 > 0:05:27and spread with agriculture out across Europe
0:05:27 > 0:05:31as agriculture itself was passed from community to community.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33And as it moved,
0:05:33 > 0:05:38they found a way to live beside us.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43Sparrows found nest sites on our homes and food in our fields and farmyards.
0:05:43 > 0:05:50But their dependence on us meant that we viewed them with suspicion from the outset.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Sparrows very early on were regarded as pests
0:05:54 > 0:05:58because they fed on the cereal crops that the farmer had grown.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02In fact, the first evidence for this in the UK was
0:06:02 > 0:06:05in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11Her Parliament passed an act which allowed the payment of head money for sparrows.
0:06:11 > 0:06:18People would take the head of each sparrow to the parish church, where they'd be paid a small bounty.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24Since that time, farming communities all over Britain have waged war on sparrows.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29One of the interesting things about sparrows is they've never really lost
0:06:29 > 0:06:32a shyness, a difficulty of approach.
0:06:32 > 0:06:39In the way that blue tits and robins have lost their fear of us, sparrows haven't,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43and I think that's to do with the fact that, because they ate grain,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46they were harvested and they were eaten.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50It's not all that easy to catch such a clever bird,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54so our ancestors turned to Holland for a practical solution.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00Dutch engineers who came over and drained the Fens brought with them what were known as sparrow pots.
0:07:00 > 0:07:07Sparrow pots were put up on farm buildings, primarily to prevent the sparrows nesting in the thatch
0:07:07 > 0:07:12and destroying the thatch, but also, they were on a hook, they could be
0:07:12 > 0:07:17lifted off and the housewife could put her hand in the bag and remove either the sparrows or the eggs.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21These would very often go into a pot in the kitchen.
0:07:21 > 0:07:27Sparrows were caught and eaten in the countryside right up until the middle of the 20th century.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33But some Britons had already begun to take a very different view
0:07:33 > 0:07:39of this little bird, as a result of the biggest social change in British history.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44In the 19th century, the balance of population between
0:07:44 > 0:07:48rural England and urban England changed quite dramatically.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53So in the early 19th century, the great majority of people lived in the countryside.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58By 1900, only about one in five people actually lived in the countryside.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03So we effectively changed from being a rural nation to being an urban nation.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08Given how dependent sparrows were on humans, it's not surprising that,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12as we moved into towns, they were the one bird that came along with us.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14One aspect of the growing cities is that
0:08:14 > 0:08:18they're still terribly close to the country.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Not just physically, but the fact that
0:08:23 > 0:08:27there's a lot of agricultural animals actually in the city.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30You have horses everywhere, you have stables,
0:08:30 > 0:08:36but also, in the parks, like in St James's Park in London, there are cows and there are sheep.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48So those birds which thrive on dung and seeds and so on, like the sparrow,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52could find the city quite a happy home.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Arguably, sparrows enjoyed better living conditions
0:08:55 > 0:08:59in Victorian cities than did much of the human population.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03The houses provide excellent nesting opportunities, where they were safe.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06They couldn't be caught easily by birds of prey and by cats.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10One of the reasons why
0:09:10 > 0:09:14the sparrows that lived in towns did rather better was that
0:09:14 > 0:09:18man's attitude towards them was quite different.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23They rather welcomed this bird coming to live close to them.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27The townsfolk's new-found affection for sparrows was
0:09:27 > 0:09:32a reaction to urbanisation, a disorientating process that cut
0:09:32 > 0:09:40millions of Britons off from wild nature, and at the same time made them nostalgic for their rural past.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43The working classes and the poor found themselves living in
0:09:43 > 0:09:50densely-packed housing, with little, if any, outdoor space, and no trees or greenery.
0:09:50 > 0:09:57But they found one way to reconnect with the birds of the countryside - not outside the home, but within it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07I have this wonderful book from the late 19th century called Home Pets. It's full of the usual suspects,
0:10:07 > 0:10:12dogs, cats and birds. And the kinds of birds that were kept
0:10:12 > 0:10:16at this time in the home weren't just canaries and budgerigars.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Everything from wheatears to nightingales, goldfinches, linnets -
0:10:19 > 0:10:24a whole pantheon of British bird species were being kept.
0:10:25 > 0:10:33And many of the people in the cities kept caged birds for their song.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37The song of the bird was like the music of the country.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41And you could close your eyes and listen to the birds sing,
0:10:41 > 0:10:46and you could be transported back to the countryside that you came from.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56It wasn't seen as cruel.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02In fact, people write about particular species, like goldfinches,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06"Happy in its cage - it sings more."
0:11:06 > 0:11:10These creep into Victorian novels, too.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15A famous example can be found in Charles Dickens' Bleak House.
0:11:15 > 0:11:21Now, my dears. Hope, joy, youth, peace, rest, life.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Oh, your time has come!
0:11:24 > 0:11:28One character, old Miss Flite, has become embroiled in a long-running
0:11:28 > 0:11:33court case, but takes comfort in her collection of caged birds.
0:11:35 > 0:11:41She has sparrows and she has linnets and she has goldfinches,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44and her idea is to set them free when the case is settled.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Goodbye, my little ones.
0:11:51 > 0:11:58The wild bird for people in the city becomes an emblem of the freedom that they have lost.
0:12:01 > 0:12:07Not surprisingly, the most popular caged birds were those with the most attractive song.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12The nightingale was one of the most popular caged birds, but because
0:12:12 > 0:12:16it was a very difficult bird to keep in captivity,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19requiring live food - worms and insect larvae and so on -
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and as a result of having
0:12:21 > 0:12:24very wet droppings, it was a dirty bird to keep.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28So you had to go to a lot of trouble both to feed it and keep it clean.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32In a way, the nightingale was knocked off its perch by the canary.
0:12:36 > 0:12:43Whether exotic or British, caged birds served another purpose beyond their song.
0:12:43 > 0:12:51It was felt that encouraging children to keep caged birds was very good moral instruction, because if you had
0:12:51 > 0:12:55a pair of canaries in the cage and they were breeding, you could see
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Mum and Dad feeding the chicks simultaneously.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02They were like a model human couple, in a way.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Because the Victorians believed birds paired for life,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13unlike many other creatures, the Church had singled them out for special attention.
0:13:13 > 0:13:19One clergyman was particularly influential in shaping attitudes to birds at this time.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24The Reverend Francis Orpen Morris was typical of
0:13:24 > 0:13:27the clergy of his day in that he regarded
0:13:27 > 0:13:31all of bird life as moral creatures from which we had to learn.
0:13:31 > 0:13:38The hedge sparrow - or, as it's now known, the dunnock - was a favourite with Morris.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40The dunnock is a shy little bird, isn't it?
0:13:40 > 0:13:44A reclusive little bird that, in bird-table terms, is walking round
0:13:44 > 0:13:47the bottom of the bird table and picking up the crumbs.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51And yet it's one of these birds when you get a really good, close look at it,
0:13:51 > 0:13:57it has very fine plumage and a lovely pair of legs, and so on. And a nice little, thin bill.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02Humble in its behaviour, drab and sober in its dress,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06this was the perfect model for how all his parishioners should behave.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11But then the Reverend Orpen Morris didn't know the truth about the dunnock, did he?
0:14:11 > 0:14:17Because the dunnock is an animal that lives a scandalous... A truly scandalous life.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20It enters into every relationship possible.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26Polygamy, polygyny, polyandry, promiscuity...
0:14:26 > 0:14:29You name it, the dunnock does it, basically.
0:14:29 > 0:14:37This scandalous behaviour was only revealed in the 1990s, and shown in the BBC series The Life Of Birds.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46This is her mate Alpha, singing lustily.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49There's a third bird around, Beta.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52# Ooh, you gotta give and take... #
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Dunnocks, instead of breeding as a conventional pair,
0:14:56 > 0:14:57often breed as a trio,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00two males paired simultaneously to one female.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Alpha seldom lets her out of her his sight,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07for she's not as faithful as she might be.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10The female wants both males to mate with her,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13because if both males mate with her,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16both of them will help rear her chicks.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18But she has got her eye cocked.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Beta is still in the hedge, calling quietly to her.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Usually, both males do mate.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31The way the males get round that is by copulating with the female
0:15:31 > 0:15:36at an incredible rate, as many as 100 copulations a day.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Twirling her tail is an invitation
0:15:39 > 0:15:42and in a split second, Beta mates with her.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48But now, out in the open,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51she's courting Alpha with that same old tail-twirling.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56She exposes her cloaca and the male that's about to copulate
0:15:56 > 0:15:59will peck at the female's cloaca.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Basically he's watching and waiting for her to eject sperm
0:16:03 > 0:16:05from the previous mating.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09As a droplet of sperm comes out, he looks at it - OK -
0:16:09 > 0:16:11and then he copulates with her.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20The other thing that's remarkable is those copulations of the dunnock
0:16:20 > 0:16:23are so fast, it's about a tenth of a second.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27That must be almost the fastest bird copulation there is.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29He basically flies over her.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Morris saw them as very respectable birds and the truth is, I'm afraid,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41the only moral you can draw from them is that it's every man for himself.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Morality wasn't the only aspect of Victorian culture
0:16:48 > 0:16:54shaping our fledgling relationship with the birdlife in our towns and gardens.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59The rapidly-growing humane movement also played an important role,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03by campaigning for compassionate treatment of all God's creatures.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07At its centre, were children's humane societies, such as
0:17:07 > 0:17:13the RSPCA's Bands of Mercy, and the Dicky Bird Society,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16founded in 1876 by WE Adams.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18William Edwin Adams
0:17:18 > 0:17:21was editor of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle from 1864.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25He was also very politically active here in Newcastle.
0:17:25 > 0:17:31Adams wrote a column for children each week, under the pseudonym of Uncle Toby.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35His objective was to encourage humane behaviour towards animals.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40A key part of this behaviour was feeding wild birds, and this was
0:17:40 > 0:17:45included in the pledge taken by new members of the Dicky Bird Society.
0:17:48 > 0:17:55"I hereby promise to be kind to all living things, to protect them to the utmost of my power,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00"to feed the birds in the winter time and never to take or destroy a nest."
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Today, we take feeding birds for granted, but in Victorian times
0:18:05 > 0:18:09it was quite unusual, even in our towns and cities.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12By encouraging children to feed wild birds,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16the Dicky Bird Society promoted a pastime that would forge
0:18:16 > 0:18:21a lasting bond between the British people and their garden birds.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26And their recruits came from some surprising places.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31There is a letter to the Dicky Bird Society from children of Dover Workhouse,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33which tells Uncle Toby
0:18:33 > 0:18:36that they were collecting crumbs from their table
0:18:36 > 0:18:38to feed to the birds the next day.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46The Dicky Bird Society was a highly-successful organisation,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50attracting hundreds of thousands of children throughout the country.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56Together with other children's organisations, they could boast millions of members.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00It seems that as the 19th century progressed, the number of people
0:19:00 > 0:19:04actually feeding the birds visibly increased.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08There was a brand-new generation of individuals
0:19:08 > 0:19:12who were far more interested in garden birds and their welfare.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18But not everyone in Victorian society thought it necessary,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20or indeed desirable, to feed birds.
0:19:23 > 0:19:29The Victorians were caught up in a massive ethical dilemma about feeding garden birds.
0:19:29 > 0:19:36On the one hand, Victorian Society and values were dominated by the concept of self-help.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41You had to look after yourself, you couldn't depend on the state
0:19:41 > 0:19:44for welfare and for support in hard times.
0:19:44 > 0:19:51They extended this moral code onto the birdlife, so therefore, the Victorians believed that,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54by feeding the garden birds, you somehow made them indolent,
0:19:54 > 0:19:59lazy and dependent on welfare.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03These attitudes would be changed by a series of very hard winters,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08which pushed birds to the edge of starvation.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13Victorian Britain was also dominated by these emerging new sensibilities for nature,
0:20:13 > 0:20:18by this wave of humanitarianism that developed, decade by decade.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20That was extremely powerful.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23The Victorians couldn't bear to see suffering.
0:20:23 > 0:20:29So when hard winters kicked in like 1890 to 1891 and birds began to die
0:20:29 > 0:20:35in Victorian gardens, there was then a battle for control of the Victorian mind.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38In the end, it was the humanitarianism that won
0:20:38 > 0:20:43and the Victorians fed the garden birds in times of great peril.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47A major winner from this change in attitudes towards feeding birds
0:20:47 > 0:20:50was the robin, the nation's favourite bird.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54There's a very rich folklore
0:20:54 > 0:20:58associated with the robin that goes way, way back.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00How did the robin get its red breast?
0:21:00 > 0:21:02The robin got its red breast
0:21:02 > 0:21:08because it plucked a thorn from the crown of thorns as Jesus was on his way to Gethsemane,
0:21:08 > 0:21:15a drop of Jesus's blood falls onto the bird, and thereafter it has a red breast.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19It's associated in a fairly deep way with the New Testament.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Robins, by Shakespeare's time and possibly long before then,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26are associated with charity and piety.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28In the Victorian era,
0:21:28 > 0:21:35the robin's position in our popular culture became even more entrenched.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Robins appear on Christmas cards
0:21:37 > 0:21:42through a rather strange process of causation.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47Robins gave their names to the first postmen, who wore red tunics,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50and were therefore called robins.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55On some of the early Christmas cards delivered by these postmen, the robin was often pictured
0:21:55 > 0:22:00with a postcard in its mouth, delivering the letter like a postman.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05The robin gave its name to the postman and the postman gave its role to the robin.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Every year since, highly sentimental images of robins have appeared
0:22:10 > 0:22:15on our Christmas cards, an annual renewal of our commitment to them.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19By the early 20th century, the foundations of today's special relationship
0:22:19 > 0:22:24with the birds living alongside us had already been laid.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29We didn't yet call them garden birds, but a growing number of people regarded these creatures
0:22:29 > 0:22:35with a sentimentality that would have been inconceivable to their rural ancestors.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40But this developing picture of harmony was about to be severely tested.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45MUSIC: "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit-Bag, And Smile, Smile, Smile" by George Henry Powell
0:22:45 > 0:22:51In August 1914, within days of the outbreak of the First World War, the Defence of the Realm Act was passed.
0:22:51 > 0:22:58This draconian piece of legislation outlawed many activities, including the wastage of food.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Almost overnight, feeding garden birds became illegal,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06and people were even prosecuted for doing so.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09"An elderly woman was fined at Woking
0:23:09 > 0:23:11"for giving bread to wild birds.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15"She stated that she'd lost her only son in Mesopotamia,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19"but all she used were the dirty bottom crusts she couldn't eat.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23"And that she'd fed the birds for 70 years and would continue to do so."
0:23:23 > 0:23:29She was fined two guineas, the equivalent of more than £100 today.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34One familiar species wasn't simply deprived of food,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38but became one of the first casualties of war on the Home Front.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47Sparrows had long been persecuted in the countryside because they ate grain.
0:23:47 > 0:23:53But now people in the suburbs became concerned about the threat they posed to the nation's food supply,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57so they joined organisations known as sparrow clubs.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01These may sound benevolent, but they had a very sinister aim.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05The sparrow club was a way of dealing with this urban,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08or suburban, vermin species,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and it would be a cluster of working-class people
0:24:11 > 0:24:15who would bring in their tallies from the sparrows they'd killed
0:24:15 > 0:24:18in their allotment or in their garden, et cetera.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21The one who killed the greatest number of sparrows
0:24:21 > 0:24:24would win a silver cup for that year.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Sparrow clubs caught sparrows in a number of different ways.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34The most common was to use large nets.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39The captured birds were then either killed and eaten or they were taken
0:24:39 > 0:24:46to either gentlemen's clubs or to pubs, where they were then used as targets for trap shooting.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51Hundreds of thousands of sparrows were killed by sparrow clubs during the war.
0:24:51 > 0:24:57But because the culls took place at the end of the breeding season, when numbers were at their peak,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01it actually had very little impact on the population.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Ironically, it was what we did in peace-time
0:25:04 > 0:25:08that would bring about a collapse in sparrow numbers.
0:25:09 > 0:25:15Things dramatically changed in the decade from 1920-1930.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19The horse, as a means of transport and pulling carts round
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and so on, disappeared from the streets.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It was displaced by the internal combustion engine.
0:25:27 > 0:25:34City sparrows had long depended on spilt horse feed and undigested seeds in horse droppings for food.
0:25:34 > 0:25:40So the replacement of horses with cars and buses deprived them of a vital resource.
0:25:40 > 0:25:46There's no doubt at all, it had a dramatic effect on the number of sparrows that occurred in the town.
0:25:46 > 0:25:54Without even trying, we'd reduced the numbers of the sparrow, the original garden bird, forever.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57But for many other garden birds, as for many householders,
0:25:57 > 0:26:03the period between the two world wars would see the dawn of a golden age.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It's interesting how recent, of course, the garden bird phenomenon is.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11If you read books about birds in the 18th, 19th, early-20th century,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13no-one talks about garden birds.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15It goes with the growth of suburbia.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20In just two decades, from 1920 to 1939,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24four million new homes were built across Britain.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30And for the first time in our history, the vast majority of these had proper gardens.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35First of all there was the actual planning of new suburbs,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38with wider roads, with trees, with these long gardens,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42with vegetable gardens and flowers and ponds and everything.
0:26:42 > 0:26:49It's the continuation of a passionate Victorian idea,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52that we must live close to nature in order to
0:26:52 > 0:26:56have a good quality of life and to be fully human.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06The inter-war housing boom was the biggest garden creation scheme ever seen.
0:27:06 > 0:27:13Collectively, these new gardens provided a whole new, man-made habitat for the birds to colonise.
0:27:15 > 0:27:21The importance of gardens and cities is classically revealed, if you have an aerial photograph,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25where you rise up above and instead of the gardens being separate,
0:27:25 > 0:27:30discreet, small, unimportant scraps of land around each house,
0:27:30 > 0:27:38they form an aggregate of semi-woodland habitats that are actually very important
0:27:38 > 0:27:43and often support a substantial diversity of birds.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48The creation of the modern suburban garden, in the 1920s and 1930s,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53set the stage on which the relationship between homeowners and garden birds
0:27:53 > 0:27:57would play out over the rest of the 20th century.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02One bird would lead the way.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06That quintessential garden bird, the robin.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11We have always loved robins for their confiding behaviour.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16Having a wild bird like a robin come and alight on your hand to feed
0:28:16 > 0:28:19really does help to form a bond between us and them
0:28:19 > 0:28:21and makes them incredibly popular.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23And their fondness for earthworms
0:28:23 > 0:28:27has engendered a very special relationship with gardeners.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34Anybody who's turning over soil, from the gravedigger to the lady
0:28:34 > 0:28:39digging her rose bed, robins' cupboard love will triumph over them
0:28:39 > 0:28:43and they'll tend your operations with great care.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48In the 1930s, one man began scrutinising the behaviour of the robin,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51the first time anyone had done so.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56David Lack was a schoolmaster at Dartington College in Devon.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01He carried out his robin research by trapping and ringing his subjects,
0:29:01 > 0:29:07so that he could tell each bird apart and follow their individual behaviour.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12What he discovered pulled the rug from under the cherished idea that each of us has a particular robin
0:29:12 > 0:29:16returning to our garden, year after year.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21I was absolutely knocked out by the realisation that the robin we had in the garden wasn't the same
0:29:21 > 0:29:25robin we had last week or a week before so... Certainly not the year before.
0:29:27 > 0:29:34The robin's traditional reputation was further undermined by the next part of Lack's research.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36Unlike most birds,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39which wear gaudy plumage to attract a mate,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42the robin's red breast serves quite the opposite purpose.
0:29:42 > 0:29:49It's used as war paint, a threat to scare off a rival robin entering his territory.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56Now, David Lack did these famous experiments were he put a stuffed robin out into a robin's territory
0:29:56 > 0:29:59and the owner came out and just attacked it
0:29:59 > 0:30:01and basically destroyed the stuffed robin.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04# If you ever step on my patch
0:30:04 > 0:30:09# I'll bring you down Bring you down... #
0:30:09 > 0:30:13'Our pretty robin red breast turns out to be a very belligerent fellow.'
0:30:17 > 0:30:21Lack published his findings in a book, The Private Life Of The Robin.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23This became an unexpected bestseller,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and changed the way we study birds forever.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32The notion that you could take one species and write a book that was that thick,
0:30:32 > 0:30:37in which you dealt with territory, in which you dealt with song,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40in which you dealt with behavioural postures...
0:30:40 > 0:30:44That was a revelation and as far as I know, I may be wrong,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49but that was the first time that one particular bird was given
0:30:49 > 0:30:51that kind of intensive treatment.
0:30:52 > 0:30:59It's more than half a century since David Lack unmasked the robin as a short-lived, feisty little bird.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03And yet the sentimental Victorian image of it persists.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05So there's this curious disconnect
0:31:05 > 0:31:10between our notion of the friendly robin, the bird we love,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13the bird of our garden, the bird on our Christmas cards
0:31:13 > 0:31:17that is entwined with notions of being British
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and on the other hand, there's the real robin.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25By the time the book was published, Britain was at war again.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36And the British garden was being redesigned as part of the war effort.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41As far as gardens were concerned, the Ministry of Food realised that
0:31:41 > 0:31:47there was an enormous, unused land resource there in people's gardens.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49And the high, top priority was
0:31:49 > 0:31:53to produce as much food at home as we possibly could.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58So they started with a massive advertising campaign.
0:32:00 > 0:32:06The Dig For Victory campaign instructed people to convert their flowerbeds into vegetable patches
0:32:06 > 0:32:09so that they could produce their own food
0:32:09 > 0:32:11to supplement their meagre rations.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15'You may not be lucky enough to own an ideal kitchen garden like this,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18'but the flower garden will grow beetroot just as well as begonias.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21'There may be room for vegetables on top of your Anderson shelter
0:32:21 > 0:32:26'or in the backyard, or even on that flat bit of roof.'
0:32:26 > 0:32:29Home-grown fruit and veg may have livened up the monotonous
0:32:29 > 0:32:33wartime diet but they also proved attractive to birds.
0:32:33 > 0:32:39And for the second time in a generation, garden birds discovered we were fickle friends.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43'Surely, isn't an hour in the garden better than an hour in the queue?'
0:32:44 > 0:32:49The birds, of course, did become the gardener's enemy
0:32:49 > 0:32:53in a much stronger way when your diet depended on
0:32:53 > 0:32:56protecting your crops from the birds.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01So I think people, they always have had and this time they still had,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05a sort of love-hate relationship with the bird population of the garden.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10So they would rig up all sorts of arrangements, netting their crops.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19The Ministry of Food also urged people to either eat leftovers, or recycle them.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23So scraps, once given to the birds, now ended up in communal pig bins.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26It was a lean time for garden birds,
0:33:26 > 0:33:31and even when the war came to an end, rationing continued.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Britain now entered a period of austerity.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42But curiously, our attitudes to gardens,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46and our attitudes to garden birds, began to change.
0:33:49 > 0:33:50There was a slight reaction.
0:33:50 > 0:33:55People really wanted gardens to be
0:33:55 > 0:33:57places of colour and scent and smell.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Gardening for pleasure was back on the agenda
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and part of the pleasure was communing with wildlife.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18This was reflected in 1945 by the publication of a little book
0:34:18 > 0:34:22called Garden Birds, written by Phyllis Barclay-Smith.
0:34:23 > 0:34:29This was the first time in Britain that the term "garden birds" had appeared in print,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33and marked a turning point in the way we thought about them.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38She begins by saying that because of industrialisation
0:34:38 > 0:34:43and the growth of the town, our garden birds are threatened.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47And we must make habitats for them.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49She tells you what trees to plant,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53where they like nesting most, you know, hawthorn, holly...
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Welcoming the birds back and making the garden beautiful
0:34:59 > 0:35:01and not fiercely productive
0:35:01 > 0:35:05is a wonderful sort of reaction to the ferocity of war.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15The design of post-war housing reinforced these trends,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18by placing the kitchen at the back of the house,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21with a clear view of the garden.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25The number of sinks I've seen that actually look down the garden,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29and you put objects of interest, a sort of entertainment, out there.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35One of them is the bird table so that you look from the kitchen sink,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38which is the epitome of drudgery, at least if you're me,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42into the garden which is the epitome of freedom
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and there are these birds coming and going.
0:35:48 > 0:35:56And outside, the nation's second favourite bird, the blue tit, was getting up to some novel antics.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58'It's not only humans who enjoy a drink of milk.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02'People all over the country are getting up in the mornings and
0:36:02 > 0:36:06'finding their milk bottle tops torn off and some of the milk missing.'
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Actually it was the cream, not the milk, that was missing.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15It's one of those things that folk of venerable years such as myself
0:36:15 > 0:36:19like to reminisce about, we were around during the milk bottle years.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23You would go out the front door
0:36:23 > 0:36:26and you'd say, "Those dratted blue tits have been at it again!"
0:36:26 > 0:36:28I can see the little holes in the milk bottle tops.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31And I hadn't thought about that for years.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36In those days, a milk bottle was put outside
0:36:36 > 0:36:40by your friendly milkman who's having an affair with your wife,
0:36:40 > 0:36:45that was absolutely standard and... they had these gold top things,
0:36:45 > 0:36:47the sort of silver paper thing on there
0:36:47 > 0:36:51but blue tits and great tits learned how to peck through them
0:36:51 > 0:36:53because there was cream on top.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59Because blue tits and great tits are kind of inquisitive birds,
0:36:59 > 0:37:00always poking around and
0:37:00 > 0:37:05peeling off bits of bark, lifting up leaves, looking for food items.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Peeling off the lid of a milk bottle is not that different, really.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13The extraordinary thing, and it is extraordinary,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18was that that behaviour spread right round the country.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22This wasn't an example of evolution in action, but simply a case
0:37:22 > 0:37:26of individual birds watching and learning from each other.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30A process which scientists call cultural transmission.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Birds are doing these things all the time, it's just that
0:37:34 > 0:37:38with the milk bottles we could see that cultural transmission.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42The milk bottle thing was like a little window into their world.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49Even before the delivery of milk to the doorstep went into decline,
0:37:49 > 0:37:54the tits stopped pecking at the foil tops because of our changing tastes.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57As we became more health-conscious, we switched to homogenised
0:37:57 > 0:38:02and skimmed milk, thus removing the cream from the top of the bottle.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Most people didn't begrudge the tits their share of the cream,
0:38:11 > 0:38:16perhaps because they were one of the earliest birds to establish themselves in suburbia.
0:38:16 > 0:38:22But the post-war period also saw the arrival of two newcomers to the suburban scene.
0:38:22 > 0:38:30The very different welcomes they received would challenge our ideas of what it meant to be British.
0:38:32 > 0:38:38The first newcomer, the collared dove, arrived almost unnoticed.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41I love all birds, but the collared dove,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44there's something essentially very boring about it.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47But behind this rather dull...
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Somebody I know described its song as a rather bored football fan.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56"U-nit-ed." This kind of three-note song, "U-nit-ed."
0:39:03 > 0:39:06And there is something very dreary about collared doves
0:39:06 > 0:39:09and they're beige in colour.
0:39:09 > 0:39:16But they conceal an incredible story of expansion.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Originally from south-west Asia, the collared dove started,
0:39:20 > 0:39:26inexplicably, to surge westwards across Europe during the 1930s.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31By the mid-1950s, it had managed to cross the North Sea.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41Probably one of the least glamorous twitches I ever went on was to north Norfolk, Sheringham I think it was,
0:39:41 > 0:39:47in about 1954 or 55 to see a pair of collared doves which are...
0:39:47 > 0:39:50talk about ten-a-penny now!
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And somebody must have noticed it cos I think they'd been there
0:39:53 > 0:39:58for a year and bred before they were announced to the world, as it were.
0:40:03 > 0:40:09Certainly they've adapted to urban and suburban environments in an incredibly positive way.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13And it now must be one of the ten most common birds in the British garden.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21Unlike the collared dove, there was little chance of our second newcomer,
0:40:21 > 0:40:26the ring-necked parakeet, slipping into the back garden unnoticed.
0:40:27 > 0:40:33Parakeets are interesting because in the UK they shout foreignness.
0:40:39 > 0:40:45They're bright green, they have red beaks, they have this loud, raucous call.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54The arrival of parakeets,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56initially in West London gardens,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59quickly attracted the attention of the media.
0:40:59 > 0:41:00'It's thought that a pair
0:41:00 > 0:41:04'of Indian parakeets escaped from a local aviary in 1968
0:41:04 > 0:41:08'and rapidly became acclimatised to living rough, British-style.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11'One of them visited the back garden of Mrs Vera Tompkins
0:41:11 > 0:41:14'who's always loved birds ever since she was a young girl.'
0:41:14 > 0:41:19'One came and sat on the top of the pear tree in the next garden
0:41:19 > 0:41:23'and I thought what a wonderful thing it would be if he came after'
0:41:23 > 0:41:25my birds' food. And, of course, he did.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Well then, in a day or two, there were two.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33A day or two after that, there were three, and then four.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36And on Boxing Day, there were 22.
0:41:42 > 0:41:48Despite their tropical appearance, parakeets are well adapted to the British climate,
0:41:48 > 0:41:53and have taken to the artificial habitat of suburbia as well as any of our other garden birds.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01I have to say I like them. They, of course, make a mess and
0:42:01 > 0:42:06make a noise but, by golly, they're lovely, aren't they? They're absolutely beautiful.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10I get up in the morning and look out and there's six or eight parakeets.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13And it doesn't half gladden the heart.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18And yet the parakeet's acceptance as a truly British bird is not quite complete.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20I'm one of the growing number
0:42:20 > 0:42:24of people that don't like parakeets, I actually don't like them at all.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30It's probably because they're big, they're green, they've got long tails,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35they just don't seem to fit in this countryside to me.
0:42:35 > 0:42:42To start with, it was probably a little touch of the exotic and maybe that has darkened because
0:42:42 > 0:42:46it's become more successful and there are rumblings that these
0:42:46 > 0:42:51hole-nesting birds might start to have an effect on native species.
0:42:51 > 0:42:56I think that we will see changes in our response by naturalists
0:42:56 > 0:42:59and you'll see changes in response by the public.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02But for now, I welcome them.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04And I watch with fascination
0:43:04 > 0:43:09how the bird will be treated in the 21st century.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15It's no accident that the ring- necked parakeet and collared dove
0:43:15 > 0:43:20chose to colonise our suburban gardens rather than the wider countryside.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23For it was during the late 20th century
0:43:23 > 0:43:28that a revolution took place in the way we attract birds to our gardens.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37It was a revolution borne out of our growing affluence as a nation,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41and would come to define our contemporary relationship with garden birds.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43And it was led by bird food.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48When I was a little boy, there was a great British tradition of trying to chop coconuts in half.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52I vividly remember the kind of fiasco of try to hit this thing
0:43:52 > 0:43:54and it was...you know. And what you fed to birds
0:43:54 > 0:43:58was coconuts if you were posh, and breadcrumbs if you weren't,
0:43:58 > 0:44:00kind of thing. That was it.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04In the absence of commercially available bird food,
0:44:04 > 0:44:09the British had traditionally fed garden birds on kitchen scraps.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12As our enthusiasm for feeding grew,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15those with time and money went further.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19When you're cooking for birds, there's no need for any of this continental sophistication.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23And Indian curries are right out. No spices, no salt incidentally either.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25We'll do a bird pudding.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27Now you need 12 ounces...
0:44:27 > 0:44:30'People liked the idea of cookery, cookery for birds'
0:44:30 > 0:44:34so if you did a sort of a recipe
0:44:34 > 0:44:37with fat of some kind and seeds, you can make a kind of cake
0:44:37 > 0:44:40out of this and of course that's very attractive to birds.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43I'm going over here...
0:44:43 > 0:44:46like so. And I've got one in there already, of course,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49to show you what it looks like when it's finished.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51At the end of the day,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55you've got a baked cake really, a flat cake.
0:44:55 > 0:45:02But with increasing demands on our time, fewer people were cooking for themselves, let alone for the birds.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05They turned to a convenient alternative -
0:45:05 > 0:45:07peanuts in a red net bag.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11These were low-grade nuts deemed unfit for human consumption.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15Although they were potentially nutritious for birds,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18they had a drawback nobody knew about.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24The problem with peanuts used to be that large proportions of them
0:45:24 > 0:45:28coming into the bird food trade were toxic
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and they were contaminated with aflatoxin,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33which is a breakdown product of a mould.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39When birds ate the contaminated peanuts, they were slowly poisoned.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43This used to happen even in my own garden because
0:45:43 > 0:45:48I used to feed through till May and then there would be no birds left.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52And knowing where I got the peanuts from at the time, and to what I now know,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56by that point, I'd managed to kill off the green finch in the garden.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04In the late 1970s, the bird food industry began to innovate,
0:46:04 > 0:46:09developing high quality products designed to mimic the food eaten
0:46:09 > 0:46:11by wild birds.
0:46:11 > 0:46:16These increasingly sophisticated products attracted more species than ever to our gardens -
0:46:16 > 0:46:20well over 100 different kinds.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34They also proved irresistible to bird-loving shoppers.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40It's quite striking to look at the way in which the packaging, the convenience of bird foods
0:46:40 > 0:46:44kind of tracked the way in which we've changed our own eating habits.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48The whole rise and rise of the prepared meals in Marks & Spencers
0:46:48 > 0:46:51is echoed by being able to buy the fat bar.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56None of this melting down, getting fat from the butcher and melting it down and mixing it
0:46:56 > 0:46:59with peanuts and things, it's there in a plastic package.
0:46:59 > 0:47:06Today, feeding birds is yet another way in which we express ourselves as consumers.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12I think a lot of people deep down to feed birds for selfish reasons,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14but in a good way. They want to say,
0:47:14 > 0:47:16"In my garden, I get this, that and the other.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20"I get bullfinches, I get... I've got lots of chaffinches.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23"I've got a great garden for birds, what have you got?"
0:47:23 > 0:47:28There is that competitive edge which is fine because it's benefiting the birds, either way you look at it.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33On top of that, it's bringing nature closer to that person as well.
0:47:35 > 0:47:41It is this deeper need to reconnect with nature that underpins our vast expenditure on bird food.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Day after day, people provide food for birds
0:47:48 > 0:47:51and extraordinarily, relationships of trust
0:47:51 > 0:47:56are built up and it's our chance to step outside the fate
0:47:56 > 0:47:58of our species which is a terrible one.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02I mean, who wants to be feared by every other creature?
0:48:02 > 0:48:07And that simple Franciscan act of giving to birds makes us feel good
0:48:07 > 0:48:14about life, that it redeems us in some fundamental way.
0:48:14 > 0:48:21Our urge to reconnect with nature through the birds in our gardens is nonetheless tempered by the fact
0:48:21 > 0:48:25that the garden itself is a semi-domesticated space.
0:48:25 > 0:48:26We may be in danger
0:48:26 > 0:48:30of turning these birds into little more than wild pets.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36I think the wish to feed garden birds
0:48:36 > 0:48:38is part of a...
0:48:38 > 0:48:43larger emotional wish to make the birds somehow dependent on us.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47To control the birds as part of our environment.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50To decorate the environment with birds.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53The desire for control over wild nature
0:48:53 > 0:48:57has always been part and parcel of gardening.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00We've always preferred some plants at the expense of others,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03and waged war on those we consider to be weeds.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Now having invested time and money bringing birds into this space,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12we subconsciously want to control them, too.
0:49:12 > 0:49:17We want them to behave in ways that conform to our own moral codes.
0:49:22 > 0:49:24If you put a bird table up in your garden,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27you are creating a sparrowhawk feeding station.
0:49:28 > 0:49:34It's quite funny and distressing to realise that when sparrowhawk zip along the backs of suburban gardens,
0:49:34 > 0:49:40they're just taking advantage of these wonderful feeding stations people have produced for them.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52People get very upset about sparrowhawks, for example, because
0:49:52 > 0:49:55they see their gardens as an extension of their living space.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00So, when you look out of the window and see a sparrowhawk pulling a pigeon or blackbird to pieces
0:50:00 > 0:50:04on your patio, it's kind of murder on the living room floor.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07This is why some birds become...
0:50:07 > 0:50:10described as being mean, evil or villainous.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13Because they become part of the human world.
0:50:14 > 0:50:19The arrival of uninvited predators into our gardens throws into
0:50:19 > 0:50:24sharp relief the emotional ties we develop with the birds we feed.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30If you've got used to YOUR blue tits, and some great big predator
0:50:30 > 0:50:34goes whisking through and basically takes that away...
0:50:35 > 0:50:38..I think, inside, you're going, "Ah, that's mine!"
0:50:38 > 0:50:40And you know you've lost something.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47As a result, many of us divide garden birds into two camps.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49On one side, our friends.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51And on the other, our enemies.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58We project human values onto the birds and then admire them for them, or dislike them for them.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02We like the robin because it's tame and confiding. Or so it appears.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05In fact, it's the merest cupboard love.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08We dislike magpies and starlings
0:51:08 > 0:51:10because we think they're noisy, rackety birds.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15Vulgar, aggressive. These are all human characteristics.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20The melodrama that is the garden
0:51:20 > 0:51:25and our encounter with it can lead to the introduction
0:51:25 > 0:51:29of moral ideas in nature, which are very unhelpful.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32The way that many people view magpies,
0:51:32 > 0:51:37as the arch-villain of the garden soap opera, is a case in point.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Magpies are big, bold songbirds
0:51:42 > 0:51:44with not much of a song,
0:51:44 > 0:51:48but a great taste in young songbirds of other species.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52We really hate the fact that they eat our blackbirds...
0:51:53 > 0:51:55..and steal our tits out of the bushes.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02They're confident, they're cocky, they're incredibly smart.
0:52:02 > 0:52:08So, they will find a blackbird or song thrush nest, and if the parents mob them or chase them away,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12they just bide their time and come back at a more appropriate time.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21And then, much to everybody's horror, they butcher the offspring on the lawn in front of you.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Branded as baby-killers, there's a popular view
0:52:27 > 0:52:32that magpies are responsible for the recent decline in songbirds.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37There's no scientific evidence that magpies have been responsible for the decrease
0:52:37 > 0:52:42in garden birds and songbirds in general that we see across Britain.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45The BTO were involved in a very detailed survey.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47We were involved in that as well.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52From a scientific point of view, there is no evidence for that.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Magpies, I defend to the death.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58I've had many fights with people over magpies.
0:52:58 > 0:53:04People talking about, "Oh, magpies, sparrowhawks, they cause the decline of all the songbirds."
0:53:04 > 0:53:08Well, I think we're using magpies and sparrowhawks as scapegoats, really.
0:53:08 > 0:53:15Because we are the animals that have caused the decline of songbirds much more than any of those birds.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19When viewing the garden bird soap opera through anthropomorphic spectacles,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23we are often blind to the real villains...
0:53:23 > 0:53:25to our own role in the drama.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39Our cats kill 55 million birds every year.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Although our relationship with garden birds is thoroughly modern,
0:53:45 > 0:53:50our attitudes to individual species remain pretty traditional,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54resistant to change even in the face of new scientific evidence.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59We have our favourites, our friends, and our enemies.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03And in the garden bird family, there has always been one poor relation -
0:54:03 > 0:54:08the house sparrow. The recent history of Britain's sparrows
0:54:08 > 0:54:13reveals not only the strength of our passion for our feathered neighbours,
0:54:13 > 0:54:18but also our inability as garden owners to influence their fate.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21As a birder myself, I never used to really look at them.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24And after a while, I realised they weren't around any more.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30I used to see them all over the place.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, if you went to the cafe,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36had a cup of tea, there'd be a load of sparrows by your feet.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38And all of a sudden, there were none there.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45Every park had an old gentleman who fed the sparrows.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49He always had his arms out, a hat on, covered in sparrows.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Then you could do it, too.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56I've got photographs of them from that time. But you won't find them now when you go out there.
0:55:03 > 0:55:09In the early 1990s, people living in Britain's towns and cities began
0:55:09 > 0:55:13to notice that their local sparrows were rapidly disappearing.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17They wrote to their local newspapers, contacted their local councillors,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20even questions were asked in the House of Commons.
0:55:20 > 0:55:21What is happening to sparrows?
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Having been taken for granted for so long,
0:55:26 > 0:55:29the sparrow was suddenly on our radar.
0:55:29 > 0:55:35A nation of bird-lovers was demanding to know what was going on with their cheeky little chappy.
0:55:35 > 0:55:36In May 2000,
0:55:36 > 0:55:41a major national newspaper launched a campaign to investigate.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43They offered a prize of £5,000
0:55:43 > 0:55:47to the first person who wrote a published paper,
0:55:47 > 0:55:52accepted in a peer-reviewed journal, that explained the urban decline.
0:55:54 > 0:56:01It turns out that sparrow chicks are dying in the nest of starvation due to a shortage of insect food.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05And even those that fledge are not surviving into maturity.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10Ironically, history may be repeating itself.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15Having dealt a major blow to sparrow populations in the 1930s,
0:56:15 > 0:56:20motor vehicles are once again being linked to the current catastrophic decline.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27And the one common cause I think upon is atmospheric pollution.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31Atmospheric pollution coming from vehicles.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35Although the Independent's prize has not yet been awarded,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39it seems likely that factors beyond the garden fence
0:56:39 > 0:56:43are responsible for the sparrow's demise.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45Just like the miner's canary,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49our sparrows may be telling us something important.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54Sparrows live in our urban habitat, and if something is happening
0:56:54 > 0:56:57to them, it is high time we knew what it is.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59Because it may be happening to us later on.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05In August 2007, our longest-standing garden bird,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09once so numerous as to have been considered a pest,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12was put on the Red List of threatened species.
0:57:22 > 0:57:28The creation of the modern British garden gave us a new, suburban space
0:57:28 > 0:57:32in which we forged an equally modern relationship with the birds
0:57:32 > 0:57:34that came to live alongside us.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38Garden birds are creatures of our making.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43And by watching and feeding them, we've come to know them intimately.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48And we've drawn them deeper into our domestic and emotional lives
0:57:48 > 0:57:50than any other group of birds.
0:57:57 > 0:58:04The story of garden birds is just one aspect of the long, eventful and often surprising relationship
0:58:04 > 0:58:07between the British and our birdlife.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15Over the next three programmes, we'll explore this side of our nation's history,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19through our spectacular seabirds,
0:58:19 > 0:58:22the birds of the British countryside.
0:58:24 > 0:58:29And starting next time with the story of how we came to protect waterbirds,
0:58:29 > 0:58:32and the wild and wonderful places where they live.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:56 > 0:59:00E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk