Tweet tweet... Zoo’s bird calls translated into Twitterspeak

As the aviary woke up, Oddie and head bird-keeper Adrian Wallis interpreted the chirps of its tropical residents in 140 characters.

The event marked September as the start of northern hemisphere bird migration.

According to Oddie, trained ears can notice subtle differences that alter bird call meanings.

“Every bird has a bit of a vocabulary. They have seven different areas of sound, and they will all have meaning. It might be a young bird asking for food, or a bird saying ‘this is my territory,’” he said.

“That red billed toucan was calling for a girlfriend. Sounds to me like he is shouting for some company!” read one of Oddie’s messages.

Another said: “Very territorial call from the scarlet chested sunbird – protecting its nest”

Oddie said he first realised the power of Twitter when posting about badger culling.

“I got a huge response, and that included little soundpieces, speeches, films, video and photographs,” he said.

“I thought in 140 characters all you could really say was ‘good morning, it’s going to be a nice day today’ and you’d run out of space, but the fact is you can send out all these other pieces of information.

“It’s a very powerful tool,” he said. “I jumped at the chance to take part in this activity.”

The technology was being used to help educate people about birds, explained Oddie.

“It is a simple fact that every bird has a vocabulary and has several different sounds and they will all have a different meaning,” he added.