Presenter Dermot O'Leary tells five stories of his favourite birds, starting with an adventure birdwatching in Scotland and finishing with an industrious garden visitor.

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Wildlife sound recordist Gary Moore tells five tales of tracking down the sounds of the golden pheasant, manx shearwater, skylark, stone curlew and the woodlark.

Naturalist, writer and poet Paul Evans presents five special episodes for Halloween, beginning with his story of the carrion crow, followed by Jeremy Deller and not a bird, but a bad story, followed by three more spooktacular birds by Paul, the barn owl in the decaying carcass of a house, the agile merlin our smallest raptor and finally the the largest corvid of them all, the raven.

Actor, theatre director and passionate birdwatcher Samuel West presents five very personal stories, beginning with the dipper, followed by the bullfinch, the joy of long tailed tits, and then the Frankie Howerd calling eider and finally the turtle dove, whose song is long lamented in the British Isles.

Birdwatching's irreverent Tweeter YOLOBirder introduces this weeks encounters with birds, beginning with his own three special encounters, firstly with the arrival of redwings, followed by another of those winter marvels waxwings and his final bird, the majestic peregrine. The final two birds featured this week come from Joe Acheson of the Hidden Orchestra, the starling and finally the onomatopoeic corncrake.

Producer Eliza Lomas introduces five stories of bird encounters with the staff of BirdLife International; a leading organisation in global bird conservation. Stuart Butchart recalls Bronze Winged Jacanas in India followed by Bruce Winney on the Red Kite and Rosa Gleave on the Goldcrest. Sue Patterson remembers an amusing incident with a Great Spotted Woodpecker and finally, Rob Martin tells the fantastic tale of encountering a Cerulean Paradise-flycatcher.

Artist Kathy Hinde introduces five stories from nature writer and broadcaster Stephen Moss about the song thrush, Cetti's warbler, the bittern, coot and the great crested grebe.

Nature writer Melissa Harrison presents stories of bird songs and calls that evoke memories from her childhood and recent encounters with wildlife in these five stories of tawny owls, starlings, kingfishers, stonechats and house sparrows for Tweet of the Day.

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Professor David Rothenberg describes the calls of five birds that have inspired his musical mind. He has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years. He is the author of Why Birds Sing, on making music with birds, and of Thousand Mile Song, about making music with whales. He is based at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he is Professor of Philosophy and Music and in this edition of Tweet of the Week he discusses the calls of the brown thrasher, the mockingbird, the superb lyrebird, the veery thrush and the laughing thrush.

This week, James Cook, Editor of natural history on Radio 4 introduces five stories from across the week. In the first of three stories by theatre director Tara Robinson, she recalls her grandfather and the common tern, followed by the barn owl in a fallen nest box and finally memories of oystercatchers on Loch Fleet. We end this weeks podcast with film maker and writer Hugh Thomson on the woodpigeon, and our final programme, Chris Jones on the swift he rescued and then released.