Listen: Beep beep tweet tweet – time to get up

A poll of digital radio users has shown that birdsong is the most popular alarm tone after the traditional beep.

Numbers of people choosing birdsong to wake up to were more than double those of any of the other 365 sounds you could choose.

Second to birdsong were church bells, followed by balloon squeaking, alarm tunes, chimes, World War II sirens and dogs barking.

Violin screeching and kettle whistling were among the least selected sounds.

The RSPB is delighted that more people chose to rise each morning to the gentle and unmistakable dawn chorus of bird song than any other alarm option.

The wildlife charity uses birdsong as its own hold music for callers to its headquarters and is often complimented on the calming and relaxing tones.

The RSPB's Bryan Bland says: "We are not surprised that birdsong has topped the poll of most popular alarm tones, we love our garden birds in the UK and having it as a wake up call is a great way of bringing the outside in.

"Songs of familiar birds from your garden are extremely relaxing and a gentle, cheerful and positive way to ease into the day."

In the UK, the real dawn chorus reaches its peak in April and May as the songs of resident species are joined by returning summer visitors.

Many nature reserves and nature groups organise dawn chorus walks as the sounds are so popular and people are eager to learn exactly what they are hearing.